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AUSTRIA: HER PEOPLE 
AND THEIR HOMELANDS 



WORKS BT THE SAME AUTHOR 
RELATING TO AUSTRIA 

PICTURES FROM BOHEMIA 

LITERARY AND BIOGRAPHICAL 
STUDIES 

A FORGOTTEN GREAT ENGLISH- 
MAN 

THE CARDINAL'S PAGE 
THE GLEAMING DAWN- 
MARK TILLOTSON 
JOHN WESTACOTT 

REPORT ON TECHNICAL AND 
COMMERCIAL EDUCATION IN 
CENTRAL EUROPE 

&c. &c. 



AUSTRIA: HER PEOPLE 
& THEIR HOMELANDS 

BY JAMES BAKER, F.R.G.s. 

F.R.Hist.Soc, KNIGHT OF THE IMPERIAL 
ORDER FRANCIS JOSEPH I., CORRE- 
SPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL 
ACADEMY OF ARTS MADRID. WITH 
FORTY -EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
DONALD MAXWELL & & & 



LONDON JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD 

NEW YORK JOHN LANE COMPANY 
TORONTO BELL & COCKBURN MCMXIII 



Gift 
Publisher 
JUL 7 »0K-» 



DBxCd 
3-s 



Turnbuli &" Spears, Printers, Edinburgh 



TO 
MY WIFE 



PREFACE 

IT is rather a significant fact that in the 
English Catalogue of Books issued between 
the years 1836 to 1872 there are only two 
books noted on Austria, one of these being 
priced at eighteenpence ; and between the years 
1872 to 1889 there are no books issued on the 
Austrian Empire. 

That is, in fifty-three years two books are catalogued 
for English readers upon this great Empire. Since 
that date there are such books as Whitman's " Story 
of the Nations," some statistical books, especially 
Geoffrey Drage's " Austria-Hungary," and one or two 
light books of travel ; upon separate parts of Austria, 
such as Bohemia, the Tyrol, the Danube, more books 
have appeared, but upon Austria as a whole there 
is a dearth unaccountable of works in the English 
tongue. For historical and other references I have 
had to go to the works of Palacky, Ploetz, Mayer, 
Borovsky, Putzger, etc., and to the local publications 
in the various provinces and towns, to the Govern- 
mental statistical works, or to the great work on 
Austria begun by the Crown Prince Rudolf. To 
most of these authors and to others I have referred 
in the body of this work ; but I have relied largely 

vii 



Austria 

on my own note-books, written during numerous 
journeys since 1873. In this volume I have tried 
to draw attention to what might be overlooked, 
rather than to the obvious to all travellers, and so 
have given sketches of the family life of the peasant 
and the well-to-do citizen, and sketched the intel- 
lectual aspirations and amusements of the people, 
giving cameos of the history in various provinces, 
as illustrative of the building up of the Empire. 
One fact will illustrate how little Austria and its 
nature marvels are known to the English reading 
public. I asked three well-read men, one an Alpinist, 
the length of the great chain of mountains, the 
Carpathians. The first answer was " about fifty 
miles," the second " about twenty miles," and the 
Alpinist said " perhaps hundreds of miles " ; but the 
fact that they swept round Southern and Eastern 
Austria for the length of over eight hundred miles 
astonished the three men. 

Austria is so decentralised an Empire, that one 
meets with excellent work in Art, Music, Literature 
and Science, in, to an Englishman, remote towns. 
The Art, Trade and Science Schools foster invention, 
often high-souled genius ; and the local reverence 
for the history of the Homeland produces poets and 
historians — romancist and dramatist. 

Throughout Austria, both I and my artist friend, 
Donald Maxwell, are indebted to so many courteous 
and kindly hospitable friends, who have enabled us 

viii 



Preface 

to see and know somewhat of the home life in the 
varied parts of the Empire, and we have been cordially 
assisted in our work by the Ministry of Railways, 
of Education, and of the Public Works, and by the 
officials of towns and provinces ; by town clerks, 
librarians, curators, and schoolmasters ; but we feel 
what a small space we have in this volume wherein 
to attempt to make the English reading public 
comprehend the intense interest and gloriously 
varied nature there is to hold and delight one in 
the Austrian Empire. 



IX 



NOTE 

For the names of places no exact rule 
has been followed. Locally now in 
Austria the traveller will find the names 
of towns given in two, and even three, 
tongues ; and it is necessary to know 
the name in the language preponderant 
in the district, and used in Maps and 
Guide-books. Frequently the dual name 
is given, such as the Slav and the Teuton, 
although the Slav accents have perforce 
been omitted. 



CONTENTS 



I. Introductory . 
II. Into Austria via the Elbe. Northern and 
Eastern Bohemia 

III. The Capital of Bohemia, Prague 

IV. Southern and Western Bohemia 
V. Through Silesia to Moravia 

VI. The Charm of Moravia 
VII. Galicia and its People 
VIII. In the High Tatra Mountains . 
IX. Through Lemberg to the Bukowina 
X. In the Bukowina . 
XI. In Imperial Vienna 
XII. Lower Austria— the Semmering . 

XIII. Styria (the Steiermark) and Graz 

XIV. Carniola (Krain)— Ljubljana (Laibach) 
XV. Carniola, Wochein Feistritz, Veldes, and 

Adelsberg . 
XVI. Triest and Istria 
XVII. Down the Istrian Coast to Dalmatia, to 

Sebenico 

xi 



PAGE 

3 



8 

21 

30 

43 

55 

63 

69 

77 

83 

91 

108 

114 

125 

132 
142 

149 



Austria 

CHAP. PAGE 

XVIII. Down the Dalmatian Coast from Sebentco to 

Cattaro ....... 157 

XIX. Through Kustenland, Gorizia (Gorz), and 

Carinthia (Karnten) .... 180 

XX. The Tauern Railway to Bad Gastein . 193 

XXI. The Tauern Railway to Salzburg . . 199 

XXII. Salzburg and the Salzkammergut . . 206 

XXIII. The Salzkammergut 212 

XXIV. The Danube — from the Bavarian Frontier 

to Linz 227 

XXV. The Danube from Linz to Vienna . .241 

XXVI. The Danube through the Wachau to 

Krems 259 

XXVII. The Danube from Krems to the Austrian 

Frontier ....... 271 

XXVIII. Through the Tyrol from Lake Garda to 

Trent (Trient or Trento) . . . 277 
XXIX. The Tyrol from Trent to Meran and 

Cortina 285 

XXX. Innsbruck and the Arlberg . . . 294 
Index 303 



xu 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Cattaro ........ Frontispiece I 

FACING PAGE 

Tetschen 10 

Prague. The Palace, from Prince Furstenburg's 

Gardens 24 

Charles Bridge, Prague 28 

Karlstein ......... 30 

Tabor 32 

Krumau 34 

Budweis 36 

Prachatic ......... 38 

Brunn 52 

Krakau 64 

Zakopane ......... 70 

Cernowitz ........ 84 

aspernbrucke, vlenna ...... 96 

The Tower of St Stephen's, Vienna . . . 106 

Graz 120 

Laibach 126 

Veldes 136 

Trieste — Twilight 142 

The Grand Canal, Trieste 144 

kovigno, istria 150 

The Velibite Mountains 152- 

Pola 154 

Lesina ......... 164 

xiii 



Austria 



Ragusa 






FJ 


ICING PAGE 

. 168 4 


The Walls of Ragusa 








170* 


In the Izonzo Valley 








182 


Mallnitz . 








. 198 


Salzburg . 








. 208 


Zell am See 








. 210 


Mondsee . 








. 214 


LlNZ .... 








. 236 


In the Stoder Valley 








. 240' 


Molk .... 








. 254/ 


Aggstein . 








. 260. 


DtJRRENSTEIN 








. 262 


Stein .... 








264 


A Village in Galicia 








278 ■ 


The Scene which Inspired Dante's Inferno 


— Thi 


3 


Larini di Marco near Trieste . 




. 280 


A Back Street in Trento 




282 ,. 


Rosengarten, from the Tschaminthal 




284 


Trafoi 




286 


SlGMUNDSKRON . 






288 


Bruneck, in the Pusterthal 






290 


Croda da Lago .... 






292 


Innsbruck .... 






294/ 


In the Arlberg Pass 






296 ► 


Hall in Tirol . 








298 



XIV 



AUSTRIA : HER PEOPLE 
AND THEIR HOMELANDS 



AUSTRIA 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTORY 

AUSTRIA as an Empire contains every type 
of Nature glory that Europe has to offer, 
and such varied races of humanity dwell 
within her borders that the student of 
history and ethnology is overwhelmed with dramatic 
incident and varied intensity of contrast. 

And yet how little known is Austria to English 
readers. Of all that vast Empire, teeming with de- 
lightful beauty and exciting glories, certain points are 
known to the British traveller and diplomatist : the 
capitals such as Vienna, Prague, and Cracow, are 
known at least by name, although in sending a wire 
lately to Prague at a big English post office, I was 
given the German rate, and on doubting the price, 
was asked if it was not in Germany ! 

The glorious rivers of Austria, the Danube, Moldau 
or Vltava, to give its Bohemian name, and Elbe, are 
also known by name, but how few English are there 
who have wandered up the wild and intensely romantic 
ravines or klamms or grunds of the Elbe and Moldau, 
or halted on the famous historic spots on the Danube, 

3 



Austria 

amidst the romantic hills overshadowing the beauteous 
wide sweeps of that mighty flood. 

The Danube ! That is sung of in the Niebelungen 
Lied, in Undine, and many legends and stories ; that 
has witnessed such heroic scenes in both mediaeval 
and modern times. 

Austria's lesser rivers issue from mountain gorges 
that climb up to rugged, serrated mountain peaks far 
above the snow line, and from glacier heights they 
leap down to mirrored lakes that exceed in varied 
romantic beauty of both form and colour the better- 
known lakes of Italy or Switzerland. 

The clusters of emerald and turquoise gems that 
lie amidst the mountains at Ischl and at St Wolfgang, 
at Veldes and Wochein-Feistritz, and in the Tyrol, 
have a wondrous, varied charm that is ever enticing 
and beauteous. The railways that penetrate these 
mountain fastnesses are marvels of engineering skill 
that excite the expert in such details. 

There is also the sea-coast of Austria, down the 
Adriatic, combining the colour of Italy with the soft, 
grey elusiveness of the Grecian isles. The towns 
upon its shores are full of wondrous monuments of 
past glories, under Roman and Venetian rule ; whilst 
the peoples of mingled Eastern and Western types, 
now living amidst these monuments, still retain much 
of their picturesque costume, and old habits of life and 
speech. The towns of Austria vary from the almost 
perfect mediaeval walled town, with its watchman 
patrolling around its gates and walls and towers, 
to the most modern city, built entirely upon new ideas, 
a city without a slum ; and the capitals of the various 
kingdoms and provinces, that make up this varied 

4 



Introductory 

Empire, have in their splendid modern development 
preserved much of their historic glory. 

The peasantry are yet full of mediaeval custom, and 
their costume in many spots is brilliant in colour and 
quaint in style ; but these same peasants are keenly 
alive to the scientific learning of the day, their know- 
ledge gained under the very interesting and remark- 
able system of education adopted in Austria. The 
student of history, archaeology, or ethnology will find 
hints in this volume of as yet untrodden fields of 
research. Vast libraries, or the archives of small 
towns, contain light upon our own history, when it 
has been linked, as it so often has been, with that of 
Austria ; and the lover of romance can lave in a per- 
fect sea of strange, weird legend, or historic fact yet 
stranger, and more weird and horrible, linked with 
the castles, abbeys, and monasteries that cluster so 
thickly on the hills and river banks, and yield so 
much to the lover of architecture, history, or folklore. 

Not only in the ruins, or in the castles, that per- 
chance for a thousand years have been inhabited, are 
preserved historic mementoes of the past, but in the 
palatial or tiny museums that are lovingly tended in 
city and townlet all over Austria. Art treasures, 
pictures, missals, books, armour, glass, domestic 
objects, needlework, all the past life is illustrated and 
jealously guarded. 

In the matter of climate the traveller has enormous 
variety, from the mountain range of the Riesengebirge 
in the north, where the " snow men " even in May 
clothe the hills in white, to the soft, luxurious, southern 
air at Ragusa on the Adriatic, where summer ever 
smiles, and palms and roses flourish. 

5 



Austria 

And the student in botany or geology has a vast 
variety of Nature's handiwork before him, sometimes 
embracing most unusual if not unique examples. 

To the sportsman, the fisherman, and huntsman, 
Austria and her rivers, lakes, and forests offer big 
opportunities, for not only is Nature prolific with fish 
and game, but Austria in this, as in so many other 
things, takes care that the latest science assists Nature. 
In winter, sport of ski-ing and skating, and toboggan- 
ing or luging, as the French call it, can be revelled in 
on the mountain heights in glorious sunshine. 

There are two things by which Austria has con- 
quered the world, her music, and her industrial 
methods. 

Her music in the days of Mozart and Haydn lit 
the intellectual world with its beauty, and to-day 
her composers, Dvofak, Strauss, Smetana, and her 
musicians, be they German or Slav, command the 
reverence and respect of all lovers of music. 

One great work has been done in Austria, in all her 
dominions, by her remarkable educational system that 
decentralises, and yet in the end centralises, the 
highest types of scientific and technical education, 
enabling genius wherever found to advance and 
assist the nation ; and thus it is that Austrian products, 
her artistic creations, and domestic furniture are seen 
in every home in the western world, and her land is 
tilled with scientific knowledge, so that an Irish 
journalist who had travelled with the author through 
Bohemia, wrote : " There is only one thing they 
cannot grow, and that is weeds." 

With such a vast outlook over such an Empire, so 
full of varied and intense interests, where the people 

6 



Introductory 

of many races, speaking varied tongues, are all 
pressing forward in national and industrial life, 
how in one volume give such an impression of the 
whole as to induce the reader to go to Austria, and 
there study and enjoy the glories and beauty of 
her Empire ? But such is the aim of both artist 
and writer in this volume, and may that object be 
successfully attained. 



CHAPTER II 

INTO AUSTRIA VIA THE ELBE. NORTHERN AND 
EASTERN BOHEMIA 

FOR the traveller from England there are 
two especial gates of entry into Austria, 
through France and over that most 
picturesque of railways, the Arlberg, to the 
pleasant town of Innsbruck, lying amidst the snowy 
Alps, or via the Hook of Holland to Dresden, and 
up through the rocky palisades of the Elbe to cross 
the frontier, afoot or riding, amidst the forests of 
Saxon Switzerland, or at the frontier railway town of 
Bodenbach on the Elbe. 

It is by this latter route we commence our tour 
and study of Austria. There are of course other 
routes to Dresden, via Flushing, Ostend, or Calais, and 
Austria can also be entered by railways at such a point 
as Eger, for those going direct to Marienbad or 
Carlsbad, but this district we shall quickly reach also 
by the Dresden route. 

Perhaps the most pleasantly picturesque way to 
enter Austria is to travel up from Dresden, by the 
comfortable and well-found Elbe saloon steamers, to 
disembark at Schandau, the last important German 
halting-place, send on the luggage to Herrenskretchen, 
and walk (or ride : ponies may be hired) a most de- 
lightful four and a half hours walk through the forest- 
clad mountains to this first Bohemian town. 

8 



Northern and Eastern Bohemia 

The frontier is crossed between the height of the 
Grosse Winterberg and the strange, massive, natural 
arch of the Prebischthor, which is in Austria. 

Standing on this strange and giddy outlook point, 
the traveller will begin to glean some faint idea of the 
picturesque, varied beauty of the kingdom of Bohemia, 
one of the richest jewels in the Austrian Imperial 
Crown. 

A vast territory lies around of mountain peak and 
dark forest upland, and in the valleys lie the pictur- 
esque, prosperous villages, surrounded by meadow 
and fruit orchards, and cornland watered by in- 
numerable streams that give fertility to the soil, and 
are often used as motive power for industrial work. 
In descending from this aerial outlook, one of the 
most romantic ravines in ail Austria can be traversed, 
the Edmunds Klamm; these klamms, or defiles, or 
gorges, to give them an English title, are characteristic 
of the mountain passes in many parts of Austria ; 
and in this Northern Bohemia lie also the fantastic 
and even grotesque mighty rock formations that have 
been dubbed " Rock towns." The two greatest of 
these strange Titanic groups of weird rocks lie in the 
extreme north of Bohemia on the borders of Prussian 
Silesia ; Adersbach, and Weckelsdorf . These forma- 
tions were supposed to be enchanted towns turned 
into stone, so like are the vast rock piles to man's 
fortifications. But beyond the great line of masses 
of rock, isolated piers start up and are formed into 
grotesque shapes of varied forms, men and women, 
animals, etc., and at their base are caverns and narrow 
passages that are awe-inspiring and weirdly strange. 
_The first time we saw Edmunds Klamm was in 

9 



Austria 

early spring, and we dropped down into the narrow 
defile after a walk from the little town of Herren- 
skretchen to the village of Johnsdorf. Often since 
then have I pierced into these silent mountain recesses, 
beautiful at all seasons, but even in autumn never 
more lovely than on this day of spring, when the 
sombre pines that sprang from every rock ledge con- 
trasted with the delicate, fresh, young green leaves 
of the birch ; the winter's torrents were still frozen, 
and hung in crystal light-blue and white cascades over 
the grey, towering rocks ; and these rocks were lit up 
with great splashes of sulphur-hued lichen, whilst 
overhead, above the mighty precipitous palisades, was 
the soft, clear blue sky in brilliant sunshine. Down 
through the gorge, rushes and hurtles, and foams 
onward the little river Kamnitz, rushing down rapids 
and over falls, but all at once it reaches a deeply worn 
bed, and all is still : and one can take a boat, and in 
absolute silence float on down the stream until another 
waterfall is reached, and the boat must be abandoned. 
A pleasant walk leads on through a gorge that re- 
minds one of the Lyn Valley in Devon, or the Wye and 
its upper reaches, and yet here there is a vastness, and 
touches of colour not present in Welsh or Devon 
scenery. Then again a boat can be taken, and save 
in dry seasons the rapids of the little Kamnitz can be 
shot, down to the romantic village of Herrenskretchen 
on the broad Elbe. 

This is as it were but a thumb-nail sketch of a 
marvellously beautiful scene, about which one could 
paint many pictures ; but our vast subject and 
limited space enforce condensation, and this picture 
of Edmunds Klamm pleads to the reader to imagine 

10 




I ETSi 



Northern and Eastern Bohemia 

hundreds of such scenes as this in Bohemia, and in 
other parts of Austria, where her mountain streams 
carve out a beauty of varied charm in their course 
to Danube, or Elbe, or Moldau, or to her mountain 
lakes. 

The Elbe from Herrenskretchen to Leitmeritz or 
Litomerice is full of beauty and interest. At Tetschen 
a diversion can be made from the river, and the rail- 
way utilised for excursions into a part of Bohemia 
that is crowded with strange scenery, and castles 
perched in romantic positions amidst mysterious 
rocky fastnesses. 

The railway climbs slowly the hills until Tannen- 
berg is reached, one of the highest points ; and then one 
can drop down by various routes either to the plateaus 
surrounded by the Iser Mountains or still farther 
onward, either by motor or carriage or rail, to Reichen- 
berg and Turnov (Turnau) and Trautenau, from 
whence a view of the Giant Mountains is gained. 

In this district, wherein lie these towns, there are 
wonders of Nature and beauties of scenery, and 
historic castles and quaint towns that would pleasantly 
occupy months of travel. And herein lie also busy 
industries such as glass, ceramics, weaving, jewellery; 
and educational establishments for the development 
of these industries that will detain the enthusiast in 
artistic development many a day. At Reichenberg 
is the oldest weaving school in Europe, splendidly 
equipped, and an excellent industrial museum. At 
Turnov a jewellery school of extremely high order, and 
deeply interesting ; at Trautenau an agricultural 
school, and in this district also are the remarkable 
castles of Burgstein or Sloup, a great castle scooped 

ii 



Austria 

out of an isolated standstone rock ; the historic, 
picturesque fortress of Bezdez or Bosig, the castles 
of the Wallenstein family, and the Roll ruin from 
whence such a vast view can be had of this romantic 
district, and a score of other castles, many still in- 
habited, others picturesque ruins. 

Not a volume but a pile of volumes might be 
written upon the legend and history and architecture 
of the castles of Bohemia. The whole of Bohemia 
is dotted with these strongholds, and some of the 
most characteristic are in this northern section of 
the country, although all Bohemia teems with them. 

The castle of Friedland, the erstwhile home of 
Wallenstein, is exceptionally well placed ; built 
around a basaltic mountain cone, now with extensive, 
handsome halls full of art and history treasures. The 
first building was a strong tower at the summit of the 
cone, and to-day the dungeons of the castle are at the 
summit, but embedded in the solid basalt. The date 
on this tower is 1014, and its fitful, fierce history can 
be traced until to-day. 

Perhaps the weirdest of all these castles is that of 
Burgstein or Sloup near Haida. This was an isolated 
mass of sandstone left in a plainland and rising some 
200 feet above the level. On its summit now 
flourish pine trees and other vegetation. But enter 
at its base, and by a narrow and V-shaped stair- 
case, just wide enough for one person at a time to 
ascend, all the rooms, and armoury, and chapel, and 
stables of a castle can be entered ; all scooped out 
of the solid rock. Around this impregnable fortress 
was a lake, and the only approach was defended by a 
drawbridge ; and from this stronghold sallied forth 

12 



Northern and Eastern Bohemia 

the robber baron who held it, and ravaged the country 
around. In its Hunger tower when opened were 
found relics of humanity, and inscriptions carved on 
the walls, and drawings of loaves of bread, the chalice, 
the Husite's sign; roses, death's-heads and crosses, 
a woman with a child, and a line of strokes, perhaps 
the tally of days of some poor, starving wretch, 
maimed but not killed when thrown down. These 
Hunger towers are always a part of all the mediseval 
castles in Central Europe. 

Another castle, not so weird, but of more imposing 
dimensions, is that of Bosig or Bezdez. Here is a 
great Hunger tower, never yet opened ; the walls 
are 15 feet in thickness. Another tall tower above, 
on the summit of the rocky ridge the castle walls 
enclose, commands a magnificent expanse of view, 
and the chapel is a charming example of fourteenth- 
century work. At one of the trefoil-headed windows 
were two niches that had both been walled up ; on 
opening them a skeleton was found walled into the 
one, the other was empty ; the awful problem of 
these two niches is full of strange, dramatic possi- 
bilities, and such problems are everywhere to be met 
with in these fascinating ruins, or still inhabited 
castles of Bohemia. In the volume " Pictures from 
Bohemia " I have sketched many of them, and 
developed some of them in my novels. In this 
district there is also the peculiarly strange type of 
scenery known as the Rock towns — wild labyrinths 
of gigantic rocks towering in the strangest of forms 
to the varied heights of hundreds of feet, even up to 
600 feet. Some of the principal of these are near 
Jicin and Turnov. and from the latter place the 

13 



Austria 

castles of Waldstein and Gros and Klein Skal can be 
visited. 

The range of the Giant Mountains affords a series of 
pleasant excursions, the highest point, the Schnee- 
koppe, often cannot be ascended in the spring because 
of the snow. I remember once in the second week 
in May intending to ascend it, but on our awaking in 
the little town at the foot of the mountain all was 
white around us, and the porter at the inn told us it 
had " Kolossal geschneit heute fruh." 

It had snowed colossally early in the morning, and 
tramping through half-melting snow is not possible. 
But at other times of the year the ascent is quite 
simple. The height is just upon 5300 feet, and the 
view from the summit is an immense and glorious one. 
It is on the frontier of Germany and Austria, and the 
view comprises vast stretches of both Empires. The 
network of railway that links up all parts of Bohemia 
will quickly run us down from Hohenelbe from whence 
the Giant Mountain excursions can be made, or from 
Trautenau to the central plainlands of Bohemia ; 
but the roads are good, and I have run easily at fifty 
miles an hour over them in an automobile, and driven 
hundreds of miles in pair-horsed carriages, that can 
be hired at low rates in most of the towns. One of 
the great pleasures, keenly enjoyed by all in these 
towns is music. At Jicin we heard a remarkable 
orchestra, and a mixed-voice choir, all amateurs of 
every grade of society in the town : their rendering 
of choice music was excellent. 

At Jicin we are within easy driving or motoring 
distance of a district that has been dubbed the 
Bohemian Paradise ; and truly it is full of great 

14 



Northern and Eastern Bohemia 

natural beauty, of strange hill form ; vast, grotesque 
rock formations, lovely valleys and river gorges and 
meadows, and fruit lands that are richly cultivated. 
It embraces the mysterious ruins of the old castle of 
the Wallensteins, known as Waldstein, and the still 
more strange castle of Gros Skal with its horrible 
rock dungeons and subterranean passages ; and near 
here is the town of Turnov (Turnau) that has much 
besides its jewellery school to induce a halt. The 
district is famous also for its precious stones, especi- 
ally the rich-hued Bohemian garnet. Two places 
especially interesting are Rotstein, with its wonderful 
masses of gigantic rocks, and the little town of 
Rovensko, where they boast of having an arrange- 
ment for the bells unique in Europe. The bells, in a 
tower, are hung mouth upwards, and are let go and 
rung by men's feet on treadles ; but there is a some- 
what similar arrangement at East Bergholt near 
Dedham in England, only here the bells are on the 
ground in the churchyard, and not in a tower. We 
heard some good music at this small town, and the 
school children sing well. 

The strangest of all the castles in this district, so 
packed full of natural beauty and historic interest, is 
that of the defiant Trosky — two castles perched on 
two lofty peaks, once opponents, then linked with a 
great wall, and to-day a most imposing ruin that 
dominates the whole country for a hundred miles 
over the plainland. A good ending to a tour in this 
district can be made at Jung Bunzlau, or Mlada 
Boleslav, as the Cechs call it. 

Not only is the district we have been sketching full 
of natural beauty and industrial interest, but histori- 

15 



Austria 

cally it is important — both in mediaeval times, when 
the lords of its numerous castles, the Waldsteins and 
Rosenbergs and others, played important parts in 
European history ; and in the Prussian campaign of 
1866, Jicin and Trautenau, Sadowa, and the Rock 
town of Prokov, were the scenes of bloody conflicts 
and decisive battles. 

Before running into Prague, the capital of Bohemia, 
there are some points of interest in Eastern Bohemia 
that cannot be omitted from any book on Austria. 

The town of Kutna Hora, or Kuttenberg, to give 
the German name, is full of mediaeval monuments, 
recalling the important role that this town played 
as second city, and money-chest of the kingdom of 
Bohemia in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 

In many parts of Austria there is much material 
for the lover of folklore and legend, and for the 
historical romancist ; and in Bohemia especially are 
the legends connected with the castles, and the history 
highly dramatic, and here in Kutna Hora are buildings 
that recall a terrible past, when religious wars were 
carried on with savage intensity, and yet a period 
when architecture and other arts flourished. 

The great Church of St Barbara, a superb example 
of fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century architecture, 
contains some most remarkable monuments, and the 
other churches and civic buildings in and around the 
town, some dating back to the twelfth century, all 
tell of a great past history ; and not far from the town, 
overshadowing the little village of Kank, is a hill, the 
Kahlenberg, that recalls vividly the terrors of the 
Hussite period. 

Here was the silver mine of St Martin's, and in 

16 



Northern and Eastern Bohemia 

Palacky's History is given a vivid description of the 
man-hunts which were adopted for catching the 
heretics, who were burnt or beheaded, until the 
executioner became so wearied and the prisoners 
so numerous, that they were leashed together in 
groups, driven to the pit's mouth, and the first one 
or two driven over, and these pulled all the others 
over, and thus they were hurled to the bottom of the 
mine, which was about 300 feet deep. History states 
that no less than 5496 men and women were hurled 
down this one shaft. The reliquary or bone house 
chapel at Sedlec, not far off, gives awful evidence of 
the murderous work of this Wiclif period. 

There are many points of interest and historic 
towns in this eastern part of Bohemia, and in the life 
of "A forgotten Great Englishman," and in the 
novels, " The Gleaming Dawn " and the " Cardinals' 
Page," I have given the history and somewhat of the 
romance of this period, when Bohemia and England 
were intimately linked together : when Anne of 
Bohemia, the wife of Richard the Second of England, 
lived at Bristol Castle and received the dues of 
Bristol and Southampton as part of her dowry, 
and many Bohemians were resident in England. 

Not far by train from Kutna Hora is a town most 
prettily situated on the Elbe, the historic Podiebrad. 
The castle still stands, though much altered, where the 
great King George of Podiebrad was born. Prince 
Hohenlohe now resides there, and it was from here 
that the famous Hohenlohe memoirs went forth to 
the world. This town, so famous in past ages, has 
lately renewed its life by the discovery of valuable 
medicinal waters, and Prince Hohenlohe has estab- 

B 17 



Austria 

lished a Spa, since acquired by the town, that is 
attracting many to the old and interesting town. 

In all these towns there is a social and family life 
that is very homely, but full of pleasant culture. 
In the upper professional and official circles and 
the well-to-do intellectual tradesmen who mingle 
together, there is always a love of literature or history, 
and, above all, of music. Let me sketch two homes, 
one of a well-known doctor, the other of a learned 
imperial councillor. In the first, I met at dinner the 
principal chemist of the town and the Protestant 
pastor, both learned men : the chemist, a good 
historian and learned antiquary ; the pastor, a clever 
linguist and a great patriot. The doctor's house 
was full of artistic treasures, books, pictures and 
sculpture ; his wife and daughters were notable 
housekeepers, priding themselves on their table, 
loaded with their own delicious productions. The 
ladies, as is the custom in most Slav houses, and 
many Teuton, wait on their guests ; but after dinner, 
whilst looking over some missals and historic treasures, 
we heard delightful music in another room, and 
quitting our books, we went in to see Madam at the 
piano, joining her son, who is a master of the violin, 
in a duet. So do the Bohemian ladies combine, and 
enjoy, the dual life of the careful housekeeper and 
the artist. 

In the imperial councillor's home the wife was 
proud of her confections for the table, and loved to see 
her guests enjoy the products of her culinary skill, and 
after handing round delicious coffee, she sat down to 
the piano and played a song of her husband's transla- 
tion from the English, set to music by herself, and 

18 



Northern and Eastern Bohemia 

then rambled away into masterly rendered excerpts 
from their own Cech masters, Dvorak, Smetana, and, 
on being asked, some of Wagner. 

Another example of the outcome of Bohemian edu- 
cation in homelife was vividly presented at Domazlice 
(Taus), where during a luncheon the guests were 
waited upon by a bevy of very handsome girls, all de- 
lightfully dressed in white and cream-coloured dresses, 
enriched with elaborate needlework. We were told 
afterwards the whole luncheon had been prepared and 
cooked by these ladies, who were daughters of the 
best families of the district, and that their dresses 
were entirely their own handiwork : here also we 
had most excellent music. 

Of the beauty of the Bohemian women we will 
quote a German author, writing in 1841, of a popular 
Slav fete on the Island in the Moldau. He devotes 
great space to the beauty present : " One lovely face 
followed each other in quick succession," and after 
arguing on the probable reason for this beauty, adds, 
" Be this, however, as it may, Prague is decidedly a 
very garden of beauty. For the young ladies of 1841, 
I am ready to give my testimony most unreservedly " ; 
and continues, " Titian, who studied the faces of lovely 
women for ninety-six years, and who, while at the 
Court of Charles V., spent five years in Germany, tells 
us, it was among the ladies of Prague that he found 
his ideal of a beautiful female head. If we go back 
beyond the times of Titian, we have the declaration of 
Charles IV. that Prague was a hortus deliciarum." 

I was fortunate once to be at a famous Slav fete 
with Walter Crane on this same island. All the 
elite of Bohemian Society were there, dressed in the 

19 



Austria 

picturesque Slav costumes, and my artist friend and I 
agreed with Titian's dictum. 

The outcome of the athletic drill of the Bohemians 
was evidenced not long since in London, by the pres- 
ence there of a Cech team of athletes from Bohemia, 
who carried off the International Challenge Shield 
for Physical Drill, and their performance elicited 
high praise from the sporting and athletic journals 
in England, it being stated that drill to these 
Bohemians was not exercise but a religion ; the 
whole team seemed animated by one soul. This drill 
can be seen in many towns, but at its best in Prague, 
the capital, that we are about to enter. 



20 



CHAPTER III 

THE CAPITAL OF BOHEMIA, PRAGUE 

THE one thing that at once arrests the 
attention in travelling in Bohemia, and, in 
fact, throughout Austria, is the intense 
cultivation of every scrap of land, be it 
mountain or plain, and the quick industry of the in- 
habitants. In running into Prague from either point 
of the compass this is very noteworthy, and upon 
arriving in Prague one at once sees the city is very 
much alive. This famous old city, with a tremendous 
history, Zlata Praha, Golden Prague, as the Slavs so 
love to call it, is being, or rather has been, transformed 
during the last twenty years. The crooked, nauseous, 
dirty streets through which one twisted and wandered 
thirty years ago have nearly all disappeared, much 
to the benefit and health of the inhabitants, 
but all the principal historic buildings have been 
preserved. 

One still enters the inner town by that magnificent 
monument of mediaeval times, the historic Powder 
Tower, and a narrow street, with historic buildings 
on either hand and a picturesque market place just 
away to the left, leads one into the Ring, the very 
heart of the city ; with the Tyn Church on the eastern 
side, and the Town Hall with its great balcony 
and little Gothic chapel, and famous clock tower on 
the western side, and rising in the centre the great 

21 



Austria 

monument to their national hero, John Hus, that is 
to be unveiled in 1915, the five hundredth anni- 
versary of his being burnt at Constance. What 
change works the whirligig of time. In Prague a 
Roman Catholic priest quietly stated to the author 
that he should not be surprised if Hus were canonised 
as a Saint, like Joan of Arc. Standing in this Ring 
or Grand Place of Prague, those who know the 
fascinating history of the city will be able to recall 
many a passionate, turbulent, intensely patriotic 
scene enacted here, when perhaps the streets around 
were blocked by the chains now hanging in the 
adjoining Town Hall. 

Prague really consists of four ancient towns, known 
as the Old Town, the New Town, and the Little Town, 
and the Vyschrad, with the two outlying portions of 
the Hradschin and the Josephstown. To these have 
been added the modern independent towns of Karlin, 
Smichov, Vinohrady, and Zizkov. 

The oldest part of the city, is the Vyschrad, 
the ancient acropolis of Prague, but the Hradschin, 
on the other bank of the Vltava, or Moldau, is said 
to have been founded about 752 a.d. by the Princess 
Libussa, who married Premysl, the ancestor of all 
the Bohemian rulers until the fourteenth century ; 
from that date until the battle of the White 
Mountain in 1620 the history of the city is full of 
dramatic incident, the two most exciting periods 
being when Prague was intimately linked with 
England by the giving and receiving a queen — by 
the giving of Queen Anne to Richard the Second, and 
by receiving as Queen, Elizabeth, the princess who 
became the mother of Prince Rupert, the famous 

22 



The Capital of Bohemia, Prague 

General, Admiral, Scientist, of our Commonwealth 
period. 

As we stand before the Council Chamber and Town 
Hall, dating back to 1338, we can see by the fine new 
streets that radiate from this centre, how energetic 
and advanced are the Prague rulers of to-day. A 
broad street leads us into the Josephtown or ancient 
Ghetto, where is left the synagogue, built about 1212, 
and the old Jewish Town Hall, and the strange old 
Jewish burying ground, with numerous crowded tombs 
going far back into the centuries. In this quarter 
now are the handsome Rudolphinum or Picture 
Gallery, and the Museum of Industrial Art, wherein is 
housed perhaps the most remarkable collection of 
glass in the world, almost complete as regards the 
marvellously beautiful examples of Bohemian glass, 
but it also contains a wondrously remarkable and 
beautiful series of the glass of other lands. 

Not far off is the Clementinum, with the University 
Library, wherein are the MSS. of Wyclif and Luther, 
and this takes us round to the front of the famous 
tower so noted for its architecture, leading us on to 
the renowned bridge, the Karluv Most, i.e. Charles 
Bridge. 

On this bridge, with its lines of statues, has been 
enacted some of the most stirring and terrible scenes 
in Prague history, and to-day it is the spot that the 
student and traveller haunts. Here one can look 
up and down the Vltava's broad flood, up to the 
Cathedral of St Vitus and the Royal Palace of the 
Hradcany and back to the towers and domes of the 
New and Old Towns, and away down to the dark steep 
rock overhanging the river, on which is the Vyschrad, 

23 



Austria 

or castle, with its old churches near by, the kernel, 
or rather stem, whence all this beauty and strange 
romantic patriotic life has sprung. 

We cross the bridge and note the various interest- 
ing groups of statues on either hand, and enter the 
Little Town or Mala Strana, where we are in the midst 
of the palaces of the great nobles of Bohemia, and 
where steep, picturesque streets lead up to the Royal 
Castle and the cathedral. 

One of the best views of this noble group of buildings 
is from the Furstenberg Gardens, looking up to the 
long lines of the great palace, wherein is the great 
hall of 1484, and from a window of this Royal Palace 
the Imperial Councillors were thrown in 1618, bring- 
ing about the disastrous thirty years' war, and leading 
on to the almost complete extinction of the Slav 
power in Bohemia for more than two centuries. 
There is a great deal to hold the traveller in this part 
of Prague. Close by is the palace of the Wallensteins, 
and also the Parliament House of the kingdom of 
Bohemia, and many another palace of the Bohemian 
nobles. 

Throughout Austria the traveller will quickly 
note the keen rivalry of the varied races that united 
form the great Austrian Empire. This rivalry, which 
at first sight seems to constitute a weakness, is really 
an immense power, for the keen emulation and the 
struggle for supremacy has enforced advancement on 
all lines, and throughout Austria many of the most 
famous institutions, museums, art galleries, schools, 
technical institutions, chambers of commerce, and 
savings banks are due largely to this race rivalry. 
The sons, aye, and daughters of one race will not per- 

24 



The Capital of Bohemia, Prague 

mit a move onward of another race without striving, 
not only to come abreast of that movement, but to 
advance further in the science, art, culture, and 
movement of the time. 

Nowhere is this valuable rivalry more keenly 
exercised than in Bohemia, and the remarkable 
educational institutions, the art galleries, and the 
Ethnographical, Art Trade, National and Naprstek's 
Museums, and the delicately and artistically decorated 
Cech Theatre, all give evidence of the intense vitality 
and culture of the Slavs in Bohemia ; and the fact 
that the entries of names in the schools for the 
October session of 1911, the Cech children num- 
bered 20,518, whilst the Germans only numbered 
1632, suggests that it is with the Cechs that the 
future of Prague lies. 

The brilliant costumes of the Cechs and their 
customs and folklore can well be studied in the 
Naprstek's Museum. M. Vojta Naprstek and Mrs 
Naprstek were remarkable people, and having made a 
modest sum in America returned to Prague with two 
objects : to advance the cause of Bohemia and collect 
all relics of her life and history, and to make England 
and English writers better known to Bohemians. In 
his life- time M. Naprstek made an extraordinary 
collection, and now this has developed into one of the 
most remarkable folks' museum in Europe. 

In 1841 a German author, who travelled far over 
Central Europe and Russia, wrote five volumes upon 
his travels, and these were in a condensed form, 
published in one volume in English ; this was one of 
the two books that appeared upon Austria in England 
between the years 1835 and 1889, being dated, London 

25 



Austria 

1843. The author, a Herr J. G. Kohl, a pleasant 
writer and shrewd observer, gleaned much informa- 
tion from all the peoples of the Austrian Empire, and 
great was his delight at the scenery and art treasures 
in Bohemia, and the energy of the Bohemian excites 
his wonder, for he writes — 

" Not only over the administration of their own 
country, but over the whole Empire, the Bohemians 
exercise great influence, owing to the important posts 
to which they have raised themselves by their ability 
and official aptitude." And of the pictures and 
treasures, he says, " To give an account of the picture 
galleries, libraries, and museums collected at the 
various castles of the Bohemian nobles, would, no 
doubt, be a highly interesting occupation, but would, 
at the same time, be found an herculean labour." 

What would he say to-day of the public museums 
and galleries. The curator of an English museum, 
studying museums in Europe, stated that the great 
National Museum at Prague was far more advanced 
and worthy of note than museums in Dresden, Berlin, 
Leipzig or Hamburg. 

In other parts of Austria it will be seen that other 
races, the Teuton and the Pole, are equally alive and 
keen for a cultured advancement and development of 
their kingdom or province, and thus the whole Empire 
has made tremendous strides ahead during the last 
quarter of a century. 

I remember Prague when it was apparently a wholly 
German city ; to-day the traveller will quickly see 
that it is a Slav city, but the Germans, although only 
about 6 per cent, of the population, have their theatre 
and schools, and the historic university, founded in 

26 



The Capital of Bohemia, Prague 

1384, has nearly 2000 German students against about 
4500 Cech students. The great technical school is 
also thus divided, having nearly a thousand German 
students to about 3000 Cechs. 

From the height whereon stands the cathedral 
and Royal Palace some delightful walks can be had, 
and, above all, the Strahov monastery should be 
visited with its valuable library housed in a beautiful 
home. 

Then not far off, through a lovely park which fol- 
lows for a time the famous Hunger Wall, the Petrin 
height can be reached, whence is a most wonder- 
ful view of the whole of the city ; all her domes and 
towers, and cupolas and the quaint " tent " towers, 
so characteristic of Prague, are far beneath, and the 
broad stream of the Ultava with its historic Charles 
Bridge and the newer bridges. Then the walk can 
be continued still through a well laid out park, until 
at the foot of the hill the gardens are reached, wherein 
is situated the excellently planned Ethnographical 
Museum. Wherein, as it were in life, by well dressed 
models in the various rich costumes, the home life of 
the people of the various districts at various epochs 
may be studied. 

Prague is of course famous for its music : the home 
of Smetana and Dvorak, Kubelik, and Sevcik his 
famous master, and on the Sophia Island in the 
summer and at various halls, and at the theatres in 
the winter, there is ample opportunity of hearing 
excellent orchestras and some of the renowned 
bands of the Austrian army. 

The little steamers that run to the various villages 
up the river, give pleasant opportunity for excursions 

2^ 



Austria 

near Prague. Great works are being carried out for 
developing the navigation of the Ultava, and soon, by 
a great lock and dam improvement, boats will be 
able to come direct from Hamburg to Prague via the 
Elbe. 

One of the pleasantest excursions on these small 
boats is up to St John's, and this river trip gives a 
good view of the dark grey rock on which stands the 
Vyschrad, the high castle whereon was built the first 
ruler's residence of Prague, that ruler known to 
legend as the father of Libussa. The later castle that 
played so fierce a part in the Husite wars is gone. The 
oldest buildings now left on this rocky height are two 
churches, one the romanesque chapel of St Martin, 
the other the church of St Peter and Paul, wherein is 
an interesting picture of the Vyschrad, as it was in 
earlier days, with walls and domes and buildings, all 
now disappeared. Perhaps still more interesting in 
this district is the Karlov church, built in 1350 by 
Charles IV. ; its octagonal dome is said to be the largest 
Gothic dome, and it is of graceful proportions. 

Prague and its adjoining towns give excellent 
examples of that problem of modern life, town 
planning. In the parent city slums have been swept 
away and beautiful streets have arisen on their sites ; 
but Vinohrady, at the east of Prague, is an example 
of an entirely modern town, housing some 80,000 
inhabitants without a slum. Town Hall, cathedral, 
theatres, schools, two delightfully laid out parks, all 
have been built during the last few years upon the 
site of the Royal vineyards, hence the name, 
Vinohrady. The streets are broad and lined with 
accacia trees, and the poor live in the upper or 

28 




i.. 



The Capital of Bohemia, Prague 

lower parts of the houses, and thus get the same 
outlook as their richer brethren, and the in- 
habitants point with pride to the fact that all the work 
on their public buildings, including the fine wood 
carving and brass work in the cathedral, has been 
done by the workmen of the town. When asked why 
they did not use other trees than accacia, the retort 
was, " You forget our bee industry." 

Thus does Prague interest the student of the pro- 
blems of to-day by her advanced work in education, 
in music, in commercial vigour, and by her remark- 
able museums ; and the student of the past, by her 
preservation of her famous monuments and her fierce 
dramatic history, but to give such a sketch of Prague 
and its history in a few pages, that will hint to the 
reader of all that will fascinate, is almost an im- 
possibility ; yet such a task in this volume will 
continually occur, for so many of the towns in the 
Austrian Empire hold one by their present-day 
beauty, and their historic past history. 



29 



CHAPTER IV 

SOUTHERN AND WESTERN BOHEMIA 

IN running south of Prague by motor, or train, 
one is quickly amidst the hills and in pictur- 
esque scenery. Throughout Bohemia, in the 
hill and mountain districts, there are always 
romantic castles perched on craggy summits, or hid 
cunningly in rocky clefts ; these are perhaps more 
numerous in North Bohemia, but about twenty 
miles south of Prague is the most remarkable 
castle in all Bohemia, the royal treasure castle of 
Karlstein. I first saw this castle before it was restored, 
when the noble ruin and fine frescoes were covered 
with dust and debris, and great stone shot some two 
feet in diameter, lay about in the ruins, recalling the 
dramatic sieges of the fifteenth century. To-day this 
castle with its palace and three remarkable chapels, 
its halls and historical frescoes, has been carefully 
restored, so that one wanders in a vast range of 
buildings, much as they were when Charles IV. built 
them in the middle of the fifteenth century. Once on 
riding up to this castle we were met with the piercing 
cry, " Keep far from the castle, keep away from the 
castle, that you avoid danger of death." This, in 
Bohemian, was continually repeated through a 
speaking horn; it was the cry of the Middle Ages 
re-echoing in the twentieth century. We were 
being made to feel the dramatic fierceness of by- 

30 




KARLS'I I IN 



Southern and Western Bohemia 

gone days. Aye, and one can go further back than 
into mediaeval times, back into the pre-Christian era, 
still preserved in popular customs. A picturesque 
and curious sight is to be seen on Walpurgis night, 
the last day of April, when witches' fires must be burnt 
and a great noise made ; for the witches are defeated 
on this night, and cattle and homestead are safe for the 
year from their attacks. No weirder sight is possible 
than to see on the Bohemian hills, as I once saw on 
the hills around this castle, these witch-fires gleaming 
on every height, burning besoms dipped in pitch being 
hurled flaming through the air, and the whole night 
filled with loud cries and shouts, and loud noises of 
all descriptions, to frighten the witches ; for the 
next village may endow you with their witches, unless 
you make more noise. So may we live again in 
prehistoric times in this Central Europe. 

If castles are more numerous in the north, brilliant 
costume is more prevalent in the south of Bohemia, 
and the towns are as interesting. 

The town of Tabor, founded by Zizka, perched on 
its rocky height above the Jordan Lake with its walls 
and old watch towers and gateways, is a spot to linger 
in, and as everywhere in Austria one can live at one 
moment in mediaeval times, and at the next be in the 
centre of the latest scientific developments. Here, 
in Tabor, is a great agricultural school, teaching 
the very latest discoveries in field, forest and garden 
work. 

If we run farther south, at Budweis, we are ap- 
proaching the Bohemian forest mountains, and are 
in a perfect network of picturesque scenery, great 
castles and towns, that for those who linger near 

3i 



Austria 

them give forth secrets of history and race feuds, and 
on Sundays and feast days especially, show a popula- 
tion eager in their patriotism and religion. 

The railroad from Budweis to Linz has been called 
the grandmother of all the railways of Europe ; at 
first it was a horse railroad, and it was stated that 
the levels were so difficult steam would never be 
used upon it. 

An excellent example of the minute care and 
assiduity to neglect no detail and no source of know- 
ledge, by the State, the Commune, and in some cases 
by the nobles, is to be seen near Budweis. Not far 
off is the great pile of modern building, the castle of 
Frauenberg, built somewhat after Windsor. But 
near this is the old castle or Jagdschloss, and 
this has been turned into a most perfect forestry 
exhibition. 

In the courtyard were sections of giant pines 295 
and 450 years old, and as we entered the house, 
most varied were the exhibits — every bird, animal, 
fish, reptile and insect, and every tree, plant, egg, to 
be found in the Schwarzenberg territory. Stags, 
eagles, boars, waterfowl, divers, storks, locusts, 
beetles, butterflies, all classed and arranged from the 
egg to full growth, or from baby animal to grandest 
example of full strength. All the furniture was of 
built-up forestry. Candelabra of horns and tusks, 
chairs and lounges, and tables of skins and claws. 
Examples of all the woods, including those used for 
resonant instruments, violins, guitars, etc. Strange 
examples of abnormal animals, every species of 
what an English hunter styles vermin. Enormous 
and most exact geological books of the century. 

32 



Southern and Western Bohemia 

Collections of the minerals and early implements of 
the stone and bronze ages, and some fine examples 
of early pottery ; one great urn of black ware, 
eighteen inches across. In fact, so much was there 
to delight in and study here, that we regretted we 
had not given a whole day to the Jagdschloss. The 
castellan showed us with pride the last bear shot 
in the Bohmerwald on November 14, 1857. But 
the educational value of such a collection is beyond 
calculation, so scientifically yet so charmingly and 
artistically and amusingly arranged, for the comic 
element was not omitted. 

The greatest of the castles of Prince Schwarzenberg, 
the descendant of the fighting powerful Rosenbergs 
of the Middle Ages, is at Krumau, or Krumlov, to 
give the Cech spelling, a vast pile of buildings on a 
rocky peak over the seething Vltava. 

When Herr Kohl visited this castle in 1841 and 
said he wished to see as much as possible of the place, 
the officer to whom he spoke asked how many weeks 
he intended to devote to the inspection ; and weeks 
it would take to understand the vast castle of Krumau, 
and especially to learn its history and legends. 
Prince Schwarzenberg has still his own army in the 
historic blue and white uniform, and the legends 
clinging to the castle, such as that of the White Lady, 
are numerous. The forerunners of the Schwarzen- 
bergs, the Rosenbergs, were a defiant dominant race, 
and a certain Henry of Rosenberg made three magis- 
trates, who came to advance a claim against him, eat 
the documents they brought, seals and all, and 
then set them free, whereupon he set the dogs after 
them. 

c 33 



Austria 

I once, in calling alone at the castle, had an experi- 
ence of these great boar hounds leaping around me, 
in their rough play, until they were called off by the 
daughter of the Seneschal of the castle. I have 
utilised this castle in " The Cardinal's Page." Herr 
Kohl says, "A moderately fertile writer might find 
material here for twenty romances." 

Near Krumau, to the south, is the historic monastery 
of Hohenfurth, and the castle of Rosenberg, with its 
treasures of glass and pictures ; and, if one drives 
north from Krumau by pleasant good roads, the 
mediaeval town of Prachatic is reached. 

Here the double gateway with its tower and fres- 
coed front, and the old walls and churches, carry one 
back in the ages ; and when the Ring or central square 
of the town is entered, the frescoed and Sgraffitoed 
walls of many of the houses assist the illusion ; 
at night especially one can re-people the town with 
the fierce combatants who fought for Pope or freedom, 
and captured and recaptured the town in mediaeval 
days. From this old town it is a pleasant walk by 
the little river Blanic, out to the deep, green sloped 
valley, wherein lies the small town of Husinec, the 
birthplace of John Hus. On his house are the words, 
in Cech, " Mistr Jan Hus nar 8 Cervna 1369," and 
throughout this district, as indeed throughout 
Bohemia, the reverence for this hero of the fourteenth 
century is very pronounced. The curious fact being 
that it is the Roman Catholic population, which is 
Slav, that holds Hus in honour, the Protestant or 
Teutonic people being apathetic in regard to John 
Hus, although their own hero, Luther, was so deeply 
indebted to him. 

34 



Southern and Western Bohemia 

In such a little town in England it would be difficult 
to get good music, but here in Husinec (by the way 
not even mentioned in Baedeker's Austria), on going 
into the village inn on one visit, I saw a violin and 
flute on the table, and at a funeral the singing was 
excellent and a good band was there. On another 
occasion we heard an excellent orchestra and a string 
quartette of English girls, the Misses Lucas, who 
were pupils of Sevcik ; a remarkable concert of 
classical music played in a superbly masterly fashion ; 
would'that in all our English small towns and villages 
we could get such music. 

From Husinec the mountain district of the 
Bohemian Forest is easily gained by road or rail, 
and some delightful excursions can be made in this 
district of the Sumava. Up through the dark forests 
with the glorious scent of the pines, to famous points 
of view, or to such picturesque spots as the Black 
Lake, that can be reached from Eisenstein or from 
Spitzberg, a lake lying in a great circular wall 
of rocky heights, surrounded with dark fir-clad 
slopes, very like the volcanic lakes in the Eiffel 
Mountains. 

. From the heights around one can look across to the 
Bavarian Mountains, and the whole district is full of 
unsullied natural beauty. Somewhat to the north, 
at the foot of the mountains, in a vast fertile plain, 
lies the town of Domazlice or Taus. The great, tall 
watch-tower proclaims it a frontier town, and around 
it lived, and still live, a fine race of folk known as the 
Chods, the frontier watchers and guard, who had 
special privileges and in mediaeval days were answer- 
able to the king alone. 

35 



Austria 

To-day, it is a wondrously picturesque sight to see 
these people in their blaze of colour, both men and 
women in picturesque dress. A few years since at a 
peasant's dance, some English writers thought an 
operatic scene had been arranged for their amuse- 
ment, but it was only a fair day, and to the pipes a 
crowd of peasants were dancing. On Sundays all 
go to the church, the women-folk in their brilliant 
colours, carrying in one hand their prayer book, 
and in the other a clean handkerchief. 

The districts from whence the peasants come can be 
told by the colours worn, and from the deep reds, and 
rich low-toned colours of this district, we pass on to 
the brilliant colours worn around Plzen or Pilsen, the 
famous brewery town. 

But Pilsen is far more than a brewery town, here 
are also many important works, including the large 
Skoda establishment, where locomotives, and other 
machines, and the great guns are turned out for the 
Austrian navy. 

The Sokol Athletic Society here is very active, 
having a good club house, and the Pilsen male voice 
choir is one of the most perfect in Europe ; their part- 
singing, into which they throw all the Slav fire and 
yet render the pianissimo passages with delicate 
and exquisite tone, is a delightful treat to the 
musician, and at the theatre at Pilsen I once saw 
King Lear rendered, both scenically and dramatically, 
with wonderful power and beauty. 

A visit to the town brewery is decidedly in- 
teresting, and the great hall, utilised for hospitality 
to famous groups of visitors, is worthy a visit for 
its decorations ; while from a scientific point of 

36 



Southern and Western Bohemia 

view the brewery is a revelation even to the general 
visitor. 

The effect of this excellent light beer and good 
wine upon a lover of whisky was well exemplified 
by the exclamation of a Scotch journalist, who had 
been making a tour through Bohemia, and whose in- 
variable habit it was to carry his native drink with him. 
When asked how he liked the beer and the wine, 
" Eh, mon," he exclaimed, " the whisky's had nae 
chance." 

Rapidly we have to sketch in the various char- 
acteristics of the parts of this complex Empire of 
Austria. But we must not quit Bohemia without a 
word upon its great health resorts, so well known 
throughout the world, and Marienbad is easily 
reached by rail from Pilsen, passing through the 
quaint little town of Mies, near which, in a pictur- 
esque hill-country, lies the ruin of the Castle of Guten- 
stein, where Burian of Gutenstein held Peter Payne, 
the " Forgotten great Englishman," prisoner, whilst he 
wrote to the Pope and to King Henry VI. of England, 
striving to get a high price for his important prisoner, 
but neither Pope nor King would pay the price 
Johann Burian afterwards obtained from the 
Bohemian Wyclifites, viz. : two hundred schock of 
Groschen (a schock was sixty), five schock being the 
ordinary ransom for a man. 

Here at Gutenstein we are amidst the hills that 
increase in height as we near Marienbad, where the 
mountains rise to about 2,000 to 3,000 feet, and the 
walks and excursions in the deep pine forests that 
clothe the hills are full of solemn beauty. 
^Marienbad is a juvenile bathing and health resort 

37 



Austria 

compared to its more famous neighbour Carlsbad, only- 
making its name early in the nineteenth century ; but, 
thanks especially to the visits of King Edward VII., 
it has developed immensely, and is a charmingly 
built and well-organised health resort. The crisp 
mountain air and scent of the pines, especially in 
the early spring, being delightful. The pretty park 
with promenades and lakes, and the Ferdinand and 
Kreuz Wells are crowded with fashionable patients 
in the season. I once entered Marienbad in April, 
when every place was shut, and intense cold and snow 
prevailed, but now a winter-season for sports is 
established. Marienbad lies in a corner, as it were, 
between the Erzgebirge and the Bohmerwald, so that 
from here sorties may be made into both the 
mountain ranges, and the roads are good for 
motoring. 

Carlsbad goes much further back in history than 
Marienbad, and the story that the springs were dis- 
covered, and the town founded by Carl IV. in the 
fourteenth century is not just to its antiquity, for it 
was known two centuries earlier, but its famous 
waters have secured to it an increasing fame, and 
to-day the town on the banks of the tumultuous rush- 
ing Tepl with its fifteen wells is the resort of patients 
and pleasure seekers from every part of the world, 
and the student of peculiar character can be well 
occupied in a stroll up the tree- sheltered and shop- 
bordered promenades of the New and Old Meadows 
(Neue and Alte Wiese). The special diseases cured 
here are gout, diabetes, and liver complaints, and the 
waters are generally good for stomach complaints. 
\ Another health resort in this western portion of 

38 




fc Uor«rt.« M«»-<U_ 



Southern and Western Bohemia 

Bohemia is Franzensbad, that lies not far from the 
historic town of Eger. Eger is a town well worth a 
visit, if only to stand in the death room of Wallenstein, 
and see the museum attached to it, and the ruins of 
the Kaiserburg with its double church. 

One of the oldest of the health resorts of Bohemia 
is Teplitz, but owing probably to the great develop- 
ment of the coal industry in and near the town, as a 
health resort it is not now so much visited, although 
its waters retain their fame for curative powers. 

But Teplitz has brought us nearly back to the Elbe 
by which we entered Austria and where we must 
quit Bohemia. 

Not far from Teplitz is the busy port of Aussig on 
the Elbe, and just above the town rises up the giant 
stronghold of mediaeval times, the Castle of Schrecken- 
stein : once the key to the Elbe and the scene of 
many a desperate struggle. 

The foundation of this castle dates from the year 
820, when the Germans made raids into Bohemia, 
and counsel was sought how to stop this. A certain 
Strzek, whose name is decidedly Slav, suggested that 
a strong fortress should be established on the Elbe, 
wherein a strong fighter should live, so that the 
Germans should not go up or down the river. This 
was agreed to, and Strzek was told to chose 
the spot, and to build the fortress and occupy 
it himself : this he did upon the advan- 
tageous rocky height, and held the place in such 
a fashion that the Germans dared no more ascend 
the river. 

There are other quaint legends of the foundation 
of this stronghold, but from this early date, down to 

39 



Austria 

the year 1310 when positive facts begin to be 
chronicled, legend fills up the void of history, and the 
history becomes more fierce and romantic than 
legend. Especially in 1426 the castle saw some 
terrible work in the Wyclifite wars. On the 16th June 
in this year, a mighty victory over the Crusaders was 
gained by the Wyclifites, and the slaughter was so 
great that 7000 Germans fell, with 500 knights and 
counts, and the booty included 37 schock of war 
waggons, richly laden ; 3 schock of cannon and 
heavy guns ; 66 schock of camp tents, and a mass of 
other weapons. As a schock means 60 the value of 
this capture was great, and on the following day the 
town of Aussig was stormed and the town set in 
flames. 

s Many a story and legend hangs around the old 
ruined walls of this castle. One of the wildest and 
most dramatic of these is called " Mathilde of 
Schreckenstein," and relates the strange deeds of 
Kuba of Strachov (i.e. Schreckenstein), who loved 
feuds and the chase ; when there were no men to 
hunt, he would hunt bears and wolves. His revenge 
upon his enemies, his capture of Mathilde and her 
lover ; the escape of the lover through the help of the 
Gnomes who lived in the mountains and Mathilde, 
and the ultimate revenge of the lover for the murder 
of his bride by Kuba, who hurled her from the battle- 
ments, make up one of those stories of love and 
combat of mediaeval times that give such an insight 
into the fierce savagery and ardent devotion of the 
period. The wanderer amidst these Bohemian 
castles will glean from local volumes legend upon 
legend, and fact stranger than legend. Between the 

40 



Southern and Western Bohemia 

years 1621 and 1648 this castle was five times besieged, 
so one gets fighting enough in its history. 

Bohemia is the land of legend, and of song, and 
music, and if in old days it was the land of loyal 
knights and fierce robber barons, and passionate 
devoted religious and patriotic enthusiasts, to-day it 
retains much of this fervour, and the fisherman and 
sportsman, who can secure excellent sport in the 
forests and mountains, will hear many an old-time 
legend. 

v In one year something like a million head of game 
are killed in Bohemia, including wild boar, red deer, 
hares, pheasant, partridges, black cock, wild duck, 
quails, etc., and the Austrian government is every- 
where careful to preserve and increase the fish in the 
streams. I have seen mountain streams in Bohemia 
black with trout. 

And if Bohemia is interesting to historian, botanist 
and geologist and sportsman, it is also of great interest 
as an educational and industrial centre. 

In old days it was the purse of the Empire because 
of its silver mines, to-day it is one of the richest 
divisions of Austria through its natural advantages, 
made much of by its energetic industrial leaders, and 
its splendid development of technical and artistic 
education. 

It is not the purpose of this volume to give a series 
of figures, but rather descriptions of the people and 
their homelands that shall lead to a more intimate 
knowledge of Austria and her people. To emphasise 
these descriptions it may be stated that in the 
" Oesterreichisches Statistisches Handbook," Bohemia 
stands forth, in many ways, as a most important 

4i 



Austria 

kingdom of the Empire of Austria, in commerce, 
population, education, and municipal institutions. 
In the chapters upon the capital of the Empire, 
Vienna, some figures are given illustratin these 
facts. 



42 



CHAPTER V 

THROUGH SILESIA TO MORAVIA 

IN journeying from Bohemia to the capital of 
Moravia a most romantic stretch of country is 
traversed, that opens up possibilities of pleasant 
excursions in a country totally unknown to the 
ordinary tourist. 

But if before leaving Bohemia, nearly on its eastern 
frontier at Wildenschwert, we bear north and running 
through the northern corner of Morvia enter Silesia, 
we are soon in the heart of the mountain district of 
the Sudeten, the highest peak of the district the 
Altvater, being on the frontier of Moravia and 
Silesia. 

All around this peak are pleasant little towns that 
offer many quiet delights to the lover of nature, of 
sport, and of pedestrian tours. Perhaps one of the 
most pleasant of these halting spots is the new health 
resort of Karlsbrunn, a little town that reminds one 
of the earlier days of Marienbad, lying as it does deep 
in the hills, and surrounded with fir forests, with a 
reminiscence of the Bad Gastein, from the rushing 
stream of the Oppa that hurtles its way valleywards 
through the little town. 

The buildings are, of course, not of the imposing 
style of either of these older health resorts, neither are 
the prices so imposing, as a room may be had here for 
two krone, say Is. 9d., upwards, although on the Tariff 

43 



Austria 

it is noted that in the season this price may be raised 
even three per cent. 

The ascent of Altvater that rises 1490 metre, say 
4600 feet, can be made direct from Karlsbrunn in 
two and a half hours, but perhaps the pleasantest 
route is to walk by the Oppa falls to the Schaferei in 
two hours, and then take the easy ascent to the 
summit. 

The strange heavy building of the Habsburg Tower 
rises on the summit, and from its platform a glorious 
view is had of hill on hill, and dark forest interspersed 
with green fields and little villages, but no great towns 
to pollute the pure mountain air with smoke. 

The members of the Tourist Union here are alive to 
the possibilities of this district for winter sport, and 
have marked out Ski runs with poles ; for the snow 
is often very deep in this northern health resort, and 
famous sport is to be had on the hill-slopes around 
Karlsbrunn. 

The genuine nature lover will revel in tramps over 
the hills here, amidst the pines and pure unadulterated 
nature, through the little block house villages, where 
inns will be found with accommodation at very low 
rates, a krone a night, or even less, for a bed, and good 
wholesome living at equivalent rates. A rucksac or a 
knapsac is the proper baggage for such a tour, but the 
traveller who loves more impedimenta will find good 
accommodation at the larger towns. 

One of these large towns is Jagerndorf, that lies 
to the east of Altvater at the Junction of the Black 
and Gold Oppa ; the streams called Oppa here are 
very numerous ; there are also the White and the 
Middle Oppa. 

44 



Through Silesia to Moravia 

This frontier town, which lies on the borders of 
Silesia, has rapidly developed of late, and has now 
nearly 20,000 inhabitants, forming a pleasant place 
for a halt after roughing it on the hills. 

The student of social life in a small mountain town 
can here well study all that goes to make up the daily 
life under Austrian rule. The schools are excellent, 
and there is an important weaving school, as that 
industry is of great importance in the district, there 
being between thirty and forty cloth factories here, 
with an output of nearly a million pounds' worth of 
goods yearly. 

From Jagerndorf, an important railway junction, 
it is only 18 miles to Troppau the capital of this 
Austrian Silesia. We run along the picturesque 
Oppa that separates Austria from Germany, leaving 
behind many a delightful hill excursion and robber's 
nest ruin, and enter the busy historical capital of 
Silesia. 

At the peace of Breslau, in 1742, Austria retained 
Troppau and a part of Jagerndorf, and in 1820 on 
account of a rising in Naples and Piedmont a congress 
was held here, but shifted to Laibach, the interesting 
town we shall visit in Carniola. But Troppau dates 
back to the twelfth century, and very early in the 
fourteenth century it was raised to a dukedom. One 
of the striking events in its history was the entry 
of the sardonic Wallenstein in the year 1627. To-day 
it is a bright well- organised town with very varied 
industries, a fine commercial school and museums. 
Especially should be visited the handsome Art and 
Trade Museum, an example of these establishments 
that in Austria, in all trade centres, do so much to 

45 



Austria 

encourage research and development in every 
industry. 

Around Troppau are many delightful spots, but 
above all the fine old castle of Gratz should be seen, 
for not only as a place of ancient birth, being men- 
tioned in the eleventh century, and as the residence 
of Queen Kunigunde in the thirteenth century, but it 
is also famous for its siege by the Husites in the 
fifteenth century, when it was taken and burnt ; and 
all music lovers should make a pilgrimage here, for 
from 1806 to 1811 Beethoven lived here, and in 1886 
Liszt visited here. 

But Troppau must not hold us, we must run on, 
quitting Silesia, taking a peep at Olmiitz, and so 
journey on into the capital of Moravia, Brunn. 



Moravia 

In Silesia the preponderance of the inhabitants are 
Germans of the Teutonic stock, very many of the 
towns being wholly German, and others with a small 
sprinkling of Slavs. But in Moravia, the Slav pro- 
portion is much greater, and hence the type of life is 
different, and the costume of the peasants is more 
brilliant. 

The student of ethnology has everywhere in Austria 
interesting facts brought before him, contrasts of 
temperament, contrasts of aspirations, ambitions and 
aims, and these contrasts are illustrated in the dress 
and in the habits and amusements of the manifold 
races that build up the Empire of Austria. 

In Olmiitz there are about 70 per cent. German and 

46 



Through Silesia to Moravia 

30 per cent. Slavs or Cechs, and the educational 
establishments are divided, some for the Germans, 
some for the Cechs, and as usual the utilitarian side 
of education is well looked after, there being a Com- 
mercial school and two Trades' continuation schools 
in the town, besides the usual important gymnasiums, 
Real schools, teachers' training schools, or girls' house- 
hold schools. 

It is always of interest to study these educational 
establishments in Austria, and in connection with 
them the historical, trade and other museums that 
are generally, in even small towns, so well and origin- 
ally organised. The two Rings (Ring is the usual 
designation all over Austria for the Central Square 
or Grande Place), the Upper and Lower Ring, are the 
centres of life in Olmutz. Time has played havoc 
with much in the town, but there are fragments of its 
earlier days in the Cathedral, and in the Town Hall, 
with its interesting museum, the history student will 
willingly linger ; but perhaps, the most interesting 
monument of old times in Olmutz is the Church 
of St Moritz, said to be the biggest Gothic church in 
all Moravia. 

Olmutz is rich in historical associations. In 1758, 
Frederick the Great besieged it, but had to raise the 
siege and return into Silesia, and in 1850, a Conference 
was held here, that resulted in, amongst other things, 
Schleswig-Holstein being handed over to the Danes. 

But the capital of Moravia is calling us and although 
as we approach it a dark cloud heralds its presence, 
as do the smoke clouds of our North country English 
towns, yet, the country all around is very beautiful. 
The dwellers in Brunn, important centre as it is of the 

47 



Austria 

cloth and leather trades of Austria, can quickly be 
in pastoral scenery, where picturesque rivers, much 
like the Wye and the Tyne in England, run through 
delightful scenery. 

Brunn is a town full of interest from its historical 
buildings, or, as we enter from the railway station 
into the wide boulevard or Bahnring, the modern 
spirit of advancement of its inhabitants is soon very 
evident. 

Good hotels, wide streets, the lamps hung with 
flowers in the most modern style, show the aim of its 
present inhabitants is to make their town beautiful 
in spite of the many factories that are in and around 
it, that have given it the title of the Austrian 
Manchester. 

Broad flights of steps lead up from the Ring to 
the centre of the old town, and one is soon in the 
busy streets, some wide, that have replaced the old 
narrow streets, and others still narrow with picturesque 
buildings. 

In the centre of the old town is the Rathhaus with 
its high towers and old arches, beneath one of which 
hangs the traditional Lindwurrn, probably a crocodile. 
Within the courtyard is a delightful little gallery or 
loggia. The tympanum of the great doorway is richly 
decorated with sculpture, under well-carved canopies, 
the central figure being Justice with sword and 
balance. This building was rebuilt in 1311, after a 
fire, the town hall added about 1489, and the portal 
and loggia in 1511. 

Some most quaint streets or rows lead from the 
Rathhaus to the Kraut or Vegetable Market, wherein 
rises up the Parnassus or Trinity Fountain, around 

48 



Through Silesia to Moravia 

which are grouped the sellers of fruit and vegetables, 
and from the high slope above this fine, open square, 
a good view of the town is had, with its numerous 
spires, domes, towers, and fine old houses. 

Near here is the Franzens Museum with a charming 
old courtyard, a rococo fountain in the centre, sur- 
rounded by pleasant trees ; within is a collection 
worthy of some time being spent upon it, of pre- 
historic and ethnologic collections. 

In Briinn, as everywhere in Austria, commerce is 
made a science, and a fine commercial school and an 
excellent trades' museum teaches that science, the 
outcome being that Briinn goods are exported largely, 
and rumour has it that the fine cloth labelled in the 
tailor's shop as " Echt Englisch " (genuine English), 
is really Briinn cloth exported to England, and 
re-exported to Austria. 

In prehistoric days ere Briinn's written history 
begins, the two heights which to-day so add to the 
picturesque in her centre, were probably the Kernel 
of her life. 

To-day, lovely avenues lead up to the Franzens- 
berg ; near the summit is an obelisk " against 
Napoleon " erected in 1818, and dedicated by Franz I. 
to Austria's army and in thankfulness to faithful 
Moravia and Silesia. 

Pretty peeps are to be had between the trees of the 
cathedral and of the wide spread, smoky city. And 
we descend from the Franzensberg down to one of the 
Protestant churches, and through fine, wide, new 
streets, up past the great trades' museum to the foot 
of the Spielberg, the great hill and historic fortress 
of Briinn. 

d 49 



Austria 

In spite of the great stand that Briinn and Moravia 
made for Protestantism, to-day there are only about 
3000 Protestants in the town, and all trace here of the 
Moravian brotherhood is gone. In the Husite wars 
Brunn held for a time with Sigmund, and in 1419, 
received him right royally. Here John Capistran, 
the Franciscan monk, preached, but later Brunn, 
especially under the Protestant King George of 
Podiebrad, held fast to the Husite cause, and 
was one of the last towns to give in to the Papal 
power. 

One can think over the fierce passages of history in 
the life of the towns, as one climbs slowly up the steep 
height, of about 900 feet, of the Spielberg. 

The old deep-toned bells of the church, boom out 
over the wide plain below as we climb up to the monu- 
ment to Count Radwit de S ouches, who defended 
Briinn against the Swedes, and rising above is the old 
grim fortress of the Spielberg, beneath which are the 
terrible dungeons wherein so many prisoners have 
been tortured and died. Here Silvio Pellico was im- 
prisoned, and in one of the " Martyr Holes " the 
Emperor Joseph II. spent an hour, and on coming out 
said, " I am the last prisoner in these cells," and the 
torture was stopped for ever. 

It was an English ambassador who brought about 
this result, for he had studied various types of imprison- 
ment, and had written : " better be hung in England 
than be pardoned in Austria," and sent to the Spiel- 
berg ; and Kaiser Joseph said he would prove if this 
were true. But to-day the Spielberg is a joy to the 
dwellers in Briinn and to all who climb its height, 
and as we went down its pleasant gardens and tree- 

50 



Through Silesia to Moravia 

clad slopes, and noted some of the cannon-balls still 
in the walls, young recruits were singing gaily and the 
hot sun was lighting up the vast plain below. 

Briinn numbers about 125,000 inhabitants, nearly 
two-thirds being Teutons, and a little over one-third 
Cechs, but I was told in 1911 that the Slavs were 
rapidly increasing as the poor, the work people, were 
largely Slavs ; but this development of the Slav 
population is noticeable throughout Bohemia and 
Moravia, and in other parts of Austria. But all, 
irrespective of race, benefit by the excellent system 
of Austrian education, and here not only are the town 
trades looked after, but there are winter schools for 
agriculturists and small holders, whose holdings vary 
from six to eighteen hectare. 

In the town, the wages run, for men, from 4s. 6d. to 
6s. per day, and in the Textiles, for women, from 2s. 
to 3s. a day. But there is a good deal of home 
industry done by the small holders as in other parts 
of Austria, and this is badly paid, a whole family 
earning about a pound a week. But these small 
holders have geese and ducks and a cow, and so eke 
out their living. 

In curious corners, and in the churches, there is still 
much of the old history of Briinn to be seen ; and 
as an example of modern enterprise, the splendid 
building of the Chamber of Commerce well exempli- 
fies the business energy of her merchants. Its portal 
of blue-grey marble is adorned with carved symbolic 
heads. The walls of the fine hall for meetings are of 
Silesian marble, the windows of good stained-glass, 
and the rooms are furnished in excellent taste with 
good local work. 

5i 



Austria 

These Chambers of Commerce are not as in England, 
supported by private subscriptions, but every one 
who pays a State duty of 8 kroners and upwards, 
pay 5 per cent, of that amount of duty to the Chamber, 
thus every merchant down to the smallest shop- 
keeper is interested in the work of the Chamber, and 
can vote for the election of Director. The work 
in these Chambers is very thorough, opening up new 
avenues of trade, stating types of trade, and stability 
of districts and customers ; the reference library here, 
being new, has only 17,000 volumes. 

Just a reference to one other modern institution in 
Briinn and we must quit this interesting town, but 
the Artist's House or academy is one of the latest 
additions to Briinn's public buildings. This is built 
in the crude Secession style, with ugly and glaring 
decorations and glass, but within was a very good 
exhibition of the work of Moravian artists, some ot the 
post impressionists' order madly striving for effect, 
and others gaining effect and impressing the lover 
of art by excellent work, both in landscape and 

figures. 

And yet amidst all this modern advancement 
the old heathen customs die hardly in Central 
Europe — one might rather say they live vigor- 
ously Many of them have, of course, been 
modified, and transplanted into the Greek or Roman 
churches, and survive in the religious ceremonies of 
to-day One of the quaintest of these old-world 
customs, is that kept up on Palm Sunday here in 
Moravia. The peasants cling to their old customs 
as they cling to their brilliant picturesque costumes. 
A fete day in a Moravian village is a brilliant spectacle. 

52 





■■■■■■■■■MaHnM 
i:k i NIS 



£ 



Through Silesia to Moravia 

The women folk in their wide distended short 
petticoats of every hue, their brilliant bodices with 
lace or silk kerchiefs thrown over the shoulders, and 
their many coloured headdresses, all form operatic 
groups when a festival or church fete is being cele- 
brated. The men wear white jackets, with brilliant 
coloured facings and rosettes or bobs to collar and 
lapels ; white breeches with black work upon them 
and top boots and broad hats with coloured ribbons, 
or perchance long white overcoats laced with black 
or coloured work. And it is such a crowd as this that 
assembles on Palm Sunday to " Carry out death." 
Death is the goddess Morena, the dark death goddess 
of the Slavs. 

The figure to represent the goddess is made up of 
straw or flax and rags, and dressed to represent 
Morena. Crowds assemble in the township or village, 
and bear her out to the nearest deep brook or pond, 
singing as they go, and the Moravians are very 
musical. The songs are sometimes sad and doleful, 
and then as in all Slav music, swiftly change to bright 
lightness with jocular words. At the brook a heavy 
blow is first dealt at Morena by one of the leaders of 
the crowd with an iron-bound stick, then all try and 
deal some blow at her, and everyone essays to tear 
off a bit of her clothing. This they guard carefully 
for the year, as it constitutes a charm against sickness 
and death ; just as the catkins or palms are treasured 
up from those blessed in the churches on Palm Sunday. 
At last after a terrific assault on her, poor Morena is 
tossed into the water and safely drowned. Death is 
defeated ; winter is over ; and with palm branches 
or branches of spring-bursting trees, entwined with 

53 



Austria 

coloured ribbons, and with coloured eggs in their 
hands the troop of peasants go jovially back to their 
homes. Nature is awake again, the death god is 
defeated, and music, and dances and merriment are 
heard instead of the doleful chants with which they 
bore out Morena from homestead and township. 



54 



CHAPTER VI 

THE CHARM OF MORAVIA 

FOR landscapes the Moravian artist has 
glorious opportunities. But a few miles 
from Brunn there is a delightful district 
full of beauty along the banks of the pretty 
river Zwitta. One of the favourite spots is called 
Adamsthal, and a little further north is Blansko. 
From either of these, the whole district can be explored 
and it is full of charm, reminding one of our Wye and 
Dart, but adding to their charm of precipitous rock 
scenery very remarkable stalactite caverns that rival 
even Adelsberg in beauty, if not in size. All these 
wild idyllic districts throughout Austria have many 
romantic legends connected with precipice and cavern 
and lake. 

We have too much space to cover, and a crowd of 
matter presses for admission into this volume, but 
there is a legend linked with this district of the 
Machocha (stepmother) avalanche, that is so full of 
retributive Nemesis that we give it. 

Some hundreds of years ago there lived in Willi- 
mowitz (it will be noticed that most of these names 
are Slav) a miner who had lost his wife, and to give 
a mother to his young son, he married a poor, but 
pretty maiden. To her also was born a son, 
but as the child was too much petted, it grew up 
sickly and weakly, and the stepmother was jealous and 

55 



Austria 

envious of the strength of her stepson. So she con- 
sulted an old woman learned in charms, and by her was 
advised to seek out,, and pluck a certain special herb- 
weed. 

Whilst seeking in the forest for this weed, she was 
met by a charcoal burner, who told her that the 
stronger and healthier grew the stepson, the weaker 
would become her own child. So long as they both 
breathed the same air her child could never recover 
strength. Then an awful determination seized upon 
the worried mother. She called the stepson to her 
in the forest, and taking him to an awful precipice, 
where the cliffs sank sheer into the valley, she begged 
him to pick a herb from the edge of the cliff, for that 
herb would make his little brother strong and well 
again. She would hold him so that he should not slip. 

The boy stooped over the rocks to pick the herb, and 
his cruel stepmother, pretending to hold him, gave 
him a push that hurled him into the abyss, and with- 
out a look, she hurried away to her home to find her 
own son, dead. 

The next morning some charcoal burners on going 
at dawn to their work heard the moaning and cries 
of a child, and they found the stepson caught in the 
branches of a tree. They rescued him, and whilst 
they were succouring him and listening to his tale of 
how his stepmother had pushed him from the summit 
above, they heard a fearful shriek from a woman's 
voice, and from the cliff sprang the maddened mother 
pressing her dead child still in her arms, but no tree 
rescued her from the death she had intended for her 
stepson. And to-day, through the howling, raging 
storms, and soughing and hissing of the wind through 

56 



The Charm of Moravia 

rocks and pines, one can hear the cries of a child, the 
screams of a woman, and all flee from the spot ; for 
misfortune awaits him, who lingers in the sound of 
these cries of the Machocha or stepmother. 

Machocha the spot is called, where this great 
avalanche or mountain-slide worked its ravage, and 
left a wild wondrous beauty spot for the modern 
traveller to marvel over ; where leaping rivulet, and 
little lakes, add to the charm of broken cliff and forest 
scenery. 

To the north of Brunn, there is picturesque scenery 
and an interesting folk ; in running south, there is very 
much of interest. The whole district is excellently 
cultivated, and the towns have characteristic and 
historic monuments that will repay frequent halts, 
and we are going over the ground where Napoleon 
emphasised Austerlitz and Wagram. 

Rising hill-chains break up the scenery, and the 
cultivated plains are dotted with prosperous villages 
and busy little towns. The costume of the Slav 
peasants is often extremely picturesque. It was a 
group from Ungarisch-Hradisch, an old town on the 
river March, that Mr Walter Crane once sketched for 
me in all their quaint and brilliant-coloured dress ; 
for the Moravian peasants make pleasant old-world 
groups in their long white coats with coloured fringes, 
and embroidered breeches, and the gay parti-coloured 
dress of the women, with brilliant head-dress ; and as 
in Bohemia, romantic castles, many inhabited, others 
in ruins, are thickly dotted in most picturesque 
situations over river and on hill height. 

One of the richest districts for scenery and historic 
interest is the Thaya valley. Foolishly, local books 

57 



Austria 

compare it to the Rhine because of its hills and 
numerous castles. In old days, when the Rhine was a 
purely pastoral river, this may not have libelled the 
river Thaya, but to-day, the beauty of the Thaya 
heights and river bends, far exceeds that of the factory 
and town- crowded Rhine. 

The little town of Znaim makes a good halting place 
for this district, and the town itself is romantically 
situated and historically important. 

To an Englishman the educational establishments of 
these small Austrian towns are extremely noteworthy. 
Here in Znaim, a town of only 16,000 inhabitants, is a 
series of remarkable establishments to develop and 
raise the manufactures and agriculture of the district. 
In addition to all the usual folk, burger, real and 
gymnasium schools, there is a technical school for 
the pottery industry, a two-class agriculture and vine- 
yard school, trades and commercial continuation 
schools, and a state and province vine cultivation 
school, with practising ground. 

The corporate life of these small towns is also very 
alert, and societies for amusement, music, fishing, 
shooting, boating, skating, gymnastics, tennis, are 
formed, and prevent effectually the dullness of pro- 
vincial small town life, so complained of in other 
countries. 

The outcome of the schools is a busy commerce in 
the articles invented or improved by the teaching in 
this district ; the various varieties of pottery from 
Majolica to the common brown ware, and in garden 
and field produce especially, in preserved fruits, or 
vegetables, and pickles. 

But Znaim charms perchance the most for the 

58 



The Charm of Moravia 

natural beauties around it. It was a brilliant day, 
early in May, that I first drove out of the town of 
Znaim, across the great busy market-place, noticing 
the dark shades of the head-dresses, and of the women's 
dress generally, for the majority of the inhabitants 
here are of the German stock ; at the village of 
Hodnitz we took up an old man as a guide, who was 
to take us to one of the nature-wonders of the place, 
the ice-exuding holes, where ice is plentiful in the 
hottest summer, in fact the hotter the summer the 
more the ice. 

We left our vehicle at the foot of a hill, and after a 
lovely walk between the pines, scrambled up over 
smoothly worn blocks of rock to the ice holes, but 
there was no ice : " kein Eis da " (no ice there), 
exclaims our guide, so on we went until we came up 
to a glorious view, the Thaya winding below between 
the dark pine forests with a vast expanse of hill 
country and rocky slopes. 

Vast masses of rock were lying round, over these we 
climbed up to a plateau where stands a monument, 
and scrambling down below this we soon felt there was 
ice near, at fissures in the rocks deathly cold blasts or 
currents of air were felt, and soon we came to an 
aperture, a great doorway of rock with flat slabs half 
hanging overhead, and here were great streams of 
ice, and all round were holes in the mountain from 
whence issued the deathly chilly puffs of the icy air. 

A wild, strange, weirdly romantic spot. 

From this height we passed down over smooth 
slippery slabs of rock, some moss covered, and over 
our heads hung great ferns and rose tall pines, to more 
Eis Gruben, where we broke off icicles 4 inches long, 

59 



Austria 

and then passed down where a mighty avalanche had 
cleared away all trees. 

It was a wild, savage scene we were amidst. The 
bright sun was gone, and an inky sky spread overhead, 
and ere we reached the foot of the hill where our 
carriage was to await us, the crashing storm broke, 
and we crouched behind a pile of cut timbers for some 
shelter against rain, hail, intense flashes of lightning 
and deafening peals of thunder. 

At length we were able to move ahead, and get 
into the village where a funeral was proceeding, all 
the women in black and all the onlookers in dark 
clothing ; the men, with priest and acolyte clustered 
round the coffin as the prayers were said before the 
house, the women being grouped near the house, a 
curiously dramatic ending to the awful storm we had 
just passed through. 

If the ice caverns were interesting, so also is the 
Castle of Frain, that as one passes along the valley 
comes out majestically on a bold, high, jagged brown 
rock, its high white upper buildings rising above the 
fir trees, and its brown, square, solitary towers looking 
mysteriously down on the piers of natural rock. The 
river winds beneath and a weir forms a pretty fore- 
ground. 

There is a great deal of interest in this castle, which 
dates from 960 a.d., and is still inhabited, having 
had many a romantic and stirring passage in its 
histoy. 

T.ie major domo who showed us over the halls and 
towers, and its art treasures, said he could not re- 
member ever to have had any English there before ; 
and this statement I have frequently met with in 

60 



The Charm of Moravia 

some of the most gloriously beautiful, and historically 
exciting spots in Austria. 

If the neighbourhood of Znaim is full of beauty 
and Sehenswiirdigkeiten (things worth seeing), so also 
is the town itself, with its historic buildings, besides 
the modern buildings for culture and amusement. 

It was on a Sunday morning that we were awakened 
at 5 a.m. by an excellent band ; and when we went 
up to the'old palace, that is now partly a barrack, we 
found the soldiers busy cleaning their coats and 
accoutrements. The whole town breathes of history, 
and history in these towns has been full of intense 
passion and fierce drama. Ottocarius Rex is carved 
on the palace gateway, reminding one that Ottakar I. 
founded Znaim in 1226, and through all its history 
Znaim has had an eventful life, especially when it 
warmly sided with the Reformation in the fifteenth 
century, and again in the seventeenth century, when 
Wallenstein with his staff resided here. 

A curious link with the past is the little Wenzel's 
chapel that stands not far from the interesting church 
of St Nicholas. This chapel, dedicated to Wencelaus, 
tr z patron saint of Bohemia, is a double church, one 
superimposed on the other as at Eger, and the strange 
fact is that in the upper church the Roman Catholic 
rites are celebrated, whilst in the lower church the 
worship is in the Protestant faith. It had been 
noised abroad in the town that we were English ; and 
whilst we were studying this remarkable architectural 
monument, the upper church being in Romanesque 
style, and the lower in the earlier style with galleries 
in the heavy walls, we were asked if we were Evangel- 
istic. We answered we were Protestants, and re- 

61 



Austria 

ceived a warm greeting, and the pastor was sent for, 
who told us there were only a hundred Protestants in 
the town, but the little group, who soon crowded 
round us, showed their intense warmth of feeling in 
the faith of Hus. But the Roman Catholics of to- 
day in Bohemia and Moravia are decidedly broad- 
minded, and their churches are often plainer than 
our own ritualistic churches. 

From near this little church we could see how the 
town is perched up upon the rock over the beautiful 
valley of the Thaya, and people and town, and all the 
charm and fascination of history and scenery, held us 
in their sway, and tempted us to pay a return visit to 
Moravia. 



62 



CHAPTER VII 

GALICIA AND ITS PEOPLE 

TO enter Galicia from Southern Moravia 
we pierce through the Beskiden Mountains 
that are linked with the most northern 
chains of the vast range generally known 
as the Carpathians. These mountains are not high, 
running only to about 4000 feet, but they are full of 
charming spots and romantic beauty, and a happy 
hunting ground for geologist, botanist, and sportsman. 
Upon entering Galicia we are soon in touch with 
the great river Vistula, that plays so important a part 
in the history and commerce of the province and 
the ancient kingdom of Poland. Travelling over the 
great well-watered plains of the province, Cracow is 
the first town of importance we arrive at upon this 
route, and Cracow is a fascinating town not only from 
its history and all the monuments of its great past that 
are preserved to it, but also by reason of its people 
and their picturesque costume and quaint customs. 

Here under Austrian rule the Pole is free to speak his 
own tongue, and to sing his own songs. Arriving, as I 
have done on more than one occasion, from the Polish 
Provinces of Russia and Germany, the contrast of the 
life of the Pole in these three divisions of the old 
kingdom is very noteworthy. 

To stand in the Ring or central square of Cracow is 
for the lover of history a moment of keen emotion. 

°3 



Austria 

Here have been enunciated, and fought out, some of 
the most passionate struggles of humanity in Europe, 
and Cracow has preserved enough of her historic 
buildings vividly to rebuild the past and its history. 

The great church of St Mary with its two towers 
rises up above the great Cloth Hall, and the scene 
within, especially upon a fete day, impresses one with 
the fervour of the peasants for their religion, and, 
as the incense rises before the elaborately beautiful 
high altar, the work of Veit Stoss, the low bending 
worshippers form a mass of colour of every hue. The 
men to-day are not so vivid in colour as formerly, but 
the long white coat with red and black facings, with the 
varied coloured vests with contrasting fringes, are still 
everywhere to be seen, and the jackets of brilliant red 
and blue, when the long white coat is not hiding 
them, make church and market place a kaleidoscope 
of colour. 

The groups of women in the market outside the 
church are full of rich beauty of colour and picturesque 
dress. Alas, the cheapness of modern clothes, com- 
pared with these carefully made, enduring, brilliant 
costumes, is steadily reducing the wearing of the old 
dress. 

As one stands at the entrance to the old Cloth Hall 
and looks up at the two towers of St Mary's, one is 
shown hanging by a chain to the archway a great 
rough knife to which a gruesome legend is attached. 
It was with this knife that one of the brothers, the 
twin architects of the two towers, slew the other, 
because his tower was approaching completion too 
rapidly, and in advance of the work of the murderer. 

As one looks around at the varied types of houses 

64 



Galicia and its People 

that form the square, one is struck by a peculiarity, 
some of the houses being very narrow with little 
frontage, others with broad, handsome facades. 

But few would guess at the quaint reason, for this 
inequality of houses built apparently at the same 
period. It arises from a law that only the higher 
nobles be permitted to have houses with five windows 
on each floor, the lesser nobles were allowed three 
windows, and the plain burghers but two, and it strikes 
one quaintly to see a burgher's little house with but 
two windows squeezed between two patrician houses 
with five or three windows. 

Austria is not afraid to allow the Poles in Galicia 
to speak and sing of their history, and with pride, 
tinged perhaps with a little sadness, the Poles of 
Cracow show you their monuments to their national 
heroes in the cathedral. The one to John Sobieski, 
the saviour of Vienna, has but a simple gold ring on 
the black marble tomb with the initials J. S. and the 
numeral III between them. On Kosciuszko's tomb is 
only the name, but when I last stood there a quantity 
of wreaths and flowers were laid upon their great 
hero's grave ; he was not forgotten. 

Not far off from the cathedral is the great palace or 
castle that rises so majestically and picturesquely 
over the broad flood of the Vistula. 

As one of my hosts in Cracow remarked, the build- 
ings here were all influenced by Italian workmen, and 
the castle is in the Italian style — three tiers of 
arcades with great archways and mighty towers and 
embattled and machiolated walls. The view of this 
vast pile of buildings from the river is especially 
interesting. 

e 65 



Austria 

I once, at Midsummer, witnessed a very picturesque 
fete on the Vistula below this castle ; an old Pagan 
custom, still heartily enacted. The maidens throw 
wreaths of flowers into the river and the floods carry 
them down, and the young men watch for them as 
they flow down the stream and seize them as they 
near the shore. These wreaths were on boards to 
which were attached lights, and soon thousands of 
lights were seen floating down the river, and later, 
processions with torches were formed and the castle 
illuminated. This quaint custom dates from pre- 
historic times and is called Swieto wiankou, the 
festival of wreaths. It celebrates the advent of 
summer, but its exact significance is not known. 

One must penetrate into some of the houses to see 
what a beauty of architecture and decoration was 
attained in the heyday of Cracow's history. There is 
preserved in the Cafe Sauer, in an upper room, the 
beautiful Italian roof and low relief of an old chapel, 
with figures of the Apostles and other religious 
emblems ; and another interesting expressive memento 
of the past is the great bundle of heavy chains 
that are hung at the corner of Slawkovska Street, 
one of the main streets. These are the chains that 
used to shut off the Jews from the central town, and 
confine them to the Ghetto. 

These quaint memorials give glimpses into the 
stirring history of the old city, already in the eleventh 
century a city of importance, and from the time it 
became the capital of Poland, about 1312, until under 
Sigismund III. that dignity was shifted to Warsaw, 
Cracow held a foremost place in the history of Europe. 

As one enters the city from the railway station there 

66 



Galicia and its People 

is an interesting relic of Cracow's former greatness in 
the round, low tower and gateway, known as the 
Florian gate, built in 1498 : an old plan of this shows it 
sunk in the outer moat then filled with water, with the 
strong walls and towers of defence beyond it, and 
within the walls the towers of the churches and high- 
gabled houses. Perhaps the greatest glory of Cracow 
is the fact that John Sobieski was born here in 1629, 
the son of the Castellan of Cracow, and he it was who, 
on 15th August, 1683, set out from Cracow, joining 
his small forces with the army of Charles of Lorraine, 
and thus commanding only 70,000 men ; on the 
12th September, he crushingly overwhelmed the vast 
Turkish force of 300,000 encamped round Vienna, 
and saved Europe from the Mohammedan flood. 

Jn the volume which my old friend, Professor 
Morfill, wrote on " Poland " there is the translation 
of a most interesting letter from Sobieski to his wife, 
dated : " The 13th September, at night." With the 
significant heading, " In the Tent of the Vizier." 
Small wonder that to-day the Austrian government 
gives freedom to the Poles in education, and the use 
of their national tongue, when this glorious deliver- 
ance must ever be remembered. Sobieski's tent, 
whence he dated this letter, may be seen in the 
museum in the Cloth Hall, and here also amidst many 
objects of intense, historical interest are the pictures 
of the great Polish painters, Matejko and Siemiradzki. 

Cracow holds us by her history, by her people, and 
by the life of to-day. Just outside the town is that 
remarkable conical hill, the Kosciuszko Hill, the upper 
cone of which is composed of earth brought from all 
parts of the world wherever Poles live, and from this 

6; 



Austria 

height we can look out over the city and the country 
round, and see the life of the people, artisan and 
peasant ; and leaving unsaid so much about that life 
and the interesting monuments of Cracow, here say 
adieu to her towers and spires. 

The country all around Cracow and stretching away 
southward is flat, and agriculture is almost the sole 
occupation of the people. The peasantry in their 
white jackets and blue breeches and jack boots, the 
women with their large shawls and brilliant head- 
dress, form picturesque groups in the country market- 
places and in the fields that are well cultivated. 
Horses, and especially ponies, are very plentiful in the 
fields, dairy work flourishes, and poultry is well looked 
after. 

But if the central portion of Galicia is flat, on her 
border lands are the various sections of the great 
Carpathian Mountains, and south of Cracow, about 
a hundred kilometres as the crow flies, is a paradise 
for sportsman, fisherman, or mountaineer, botanist, 
or geologist, in that section of the Carpathians known 
as the High Tatra Mountains. 



68 



CHAPTER VIII 

IN THE HIGH TATRA MOUNTAINS 

THE marvellous diversity of life and scenery 
in Austria lends a strange and delightful 
charm to travelling amongst her people. 
Dramatic changes are continuously suc- 
ceeding each other, and this is strikingly illustrated 
in journeying from Cracow to that romantically 
encircled plateau of the Carpathians, whereon lies 
the picturesque little town of Zakopane. 

We happened on one occasion to leave Cracow for 
the mountains at 7 a.m., and as we steamed out of the 
ancient capital all her towers stood out in fine effect 
under the morning sun, and over the plainland rose up 
that conical hill of Polish earth, dominating the flat 
land around it. 

But we soon ran into the hill country with fir forest 
and sloping meadowland, and picturesque villages 
and pleasant little towns. 

Amidst the white and grey houses of the villages, we 
see tiny dots of children guarding the geese or cows ; 
one tiny mite of about four years was in charge of a 
flock of geese ; the women folk in blue skirts and red 
jackets, or in red skirts and soft, brown jackets, busy 
in garden and field. 

The country is well tilled, and the roads are fairly 
good, and it is noteworthy to see the quantity of 
small stock in every village. 

69 



Austria 

At Chabowka one begins to get to the uplands, and 
here starts the new railway, opened in 1901, that has 
done so much to develop the district. A rich, fruitful 
district with plenty of fruit trees and wide, open 
meadows, and away in the distance, like soft clouds 
in the horizon, rises up the gloom of the vast blocks 
of the mountain ranges. 

But we climb on, rising slowly over the vast plain 
to Nowy Targ, and the elusive Carpathians still keep 
far away, but soon isolated peaks are near, and then 
to the south-east and east a grand serrated range is 
seen, and we are in the mountain uplands, with the 
rich grass and soft scent of the hay. The men in the 
fields have white vests, and white breeches decorated 
with black needlework, and the women love a rich 
old gold tone for their head-dress. 

At Poronin we are in the peculiar mountain bay, 
or recess, in which Zakopane lies nestled at the base, 
and all around is a glorious view of the mighty range 
of heights. Vast towering blocks, ridge on ridge, like 
a tumbling sea, dark, mysterious. A rushing river 
dashes down from the hills and pierces through a vast 
amphitheatre of soft grass, here and there dotted 
with yellow corn, and amidst the landscape are figures 
of women-folk in deep red dresses capped by the old 
gold head-dress. 

Zakopane is a pleasant, bright little town, unique 
in itself, and yet slightly reminiscent of some of the 
Swiss towns in far bygone days, before crowds of 
British and Americans had captured and overwhelmed 
the district. 

Good small hotels, well-built houses, and numerous 
pensions are situated in pleasant avenues leading 

70 



tmmmmmmmm 



i" » — *t 



In the High Tatra Mountains 

away to the pine forests that shade the country 
roads, and, towering up over the town, the vast 
heights and strangely shaped peaks, and serrated 
ridges of the Tatra Mountains, the highest of all 
that vast mountain range that shuts off east from 
west known as the Carpathians, a range that circles 
round Eastern Europe for a distance of nearly 
900 miles. 

Our artist friend was arranging to get a characteristic 
bit of the Tatra heights from Zakopane, and at once 
the curious crooked peak that seems to rise sheer 
from the meadows by the rushing little river, the 
White Dunajec, called loudly for supremacy. This 
height of the Giewont dominates all views in the 
district, and delightful it is to wander up by the side 
of the brawling, tumbling, rushing stream, in the 
glorious pure air with the soft scent of the pines, 
mingled with the hay, amidst which are working 
men, women, and children, all in richly coloured 
and interesting costumes. The river reminds one 
of the Usk, and the scene around of Switzer- 
land, with a more brilliantly dressed peasantry. We 
found a good view of the whole encircling range 
was had from the exercising ground of the Sokol, 
the presence of this gymnastic union proving that 
we were in a Slav district, if the brilliant colours 
worn by the peasants had not already asserted the 
fact. 

It was intensely hot in the valley on this afternoon, 
but in the night Zakopane was to show us its power 
of jiiick atmospheric change ; for, after dinner, when 
all the guests of the Dr Chramiece Institution, where 
we were staying, were amusing themselves with 

7 1 



Austria 

music and cards, and a Tombola was being drawn, 
in spite of the lights the whole room was flooded 
with lightning, and the crashes of thunder were 
nerve- shattering, and the next morning, on looking 
out over the pine-tops, lo, the mountains were white 
with snow. 

Zakopane is perhaps the best centre for expeditions 
into the heart of the Carpathians in Austrian territory ; 
the Hungarian frontier is not far off, but in this 
volume we are only dealing with Austria, and, in 
the Carpathians, Austria has enough nature wonders, 
to hold entranced the lover of wild, titanic, dramatic 
scenery. 

Guides and ponies and light vehicles can easily be 
provided for covering the distance to the foot of the 
peaks to be climbed, or for crossing some of the forest 
passes, and for the pedestrian who loves walking, 
without too adventurous climbing, there are some 
glorious walks near Zakopane, and the idea of danger 
and the necessity of carrying arms in the mountains 
is too stupid to refer to, had not some writers sug- 
gested such a folly. 

One lovely walk is up to the now deserted 
ironworks of Kuznice. Here is a very large 
school for teaching housewifery, and in my walks 
I fell in with a Pole from Posen whose daughter 
was being educated here. There were three 
ranks of girls, the first paying 1500 Kronen a 
year, the second 1000, and the third a small fee, 
but these helped with the work and agreed 
to stay five years. We had a long talk upon 
the contrast of Prussian and Austrian rule of the 
Poles as we walked on between the grand lines of 

72 



In the High Tatra Mountains 

sombre pines, with rushing mountain torrents making 
pleasant music on either side of the forest road ; and 
far above the pines were the great grey craggy peaks, 
high in the sunlight. 

The water power is used for a paper mill ; at about 
3500 feet up is a good restaurant, spotlessly clean, 
and with beautiful flowers on the tables, and in the 
windows. We saw, as we returned, a pretty sketch 
suggestive of the Real Presence, namely, a timber 
church, so crowded that all round the door the 
peasants were clustered, but one man had gone 
from the crowded door, and was alone; standing 
in his picturesque costume, with his ear glued to a 
chink in the timber, that he might hear and join in 
the service of God. 

One of the favourite excursions is to the strange, 
weird little lake called the Morskie Oko, or Meere- 
sauge, the " Eye of the sea," about 4500 feet above 
sea level, a strange wild spot, with the grey 
bare rocks running down to the little lake that 
suggest weird fantasy and legend, with the mountains 
above it towering to the height of 8000 or 9000 
feet. 

Of the dangerous sport, rock-climbing, there is 
plenty to be had in these mountains, and in excursions 
to the marvellously romantic Koscieliska Valley we 
saw some famous spots for tests of nerve and endur- 
ance, known as rock-climbs by local enthusiasts. But 
the charm and wonder of this valley and the narrow 
defile that leads on into the heart of the mountains 
is indescribable. To reach it, we pass over a wide, 
open plateau, with good views of the precipitous 
mountains, and on the hill-slopes is a vast sanatorium. 

73 



Austria 

There are many of these buildings here, and they do 
not accord with the scenery, like the picturesque 
block-houses often decorated with excellently carved 
frontals. 

But we leave the plateau and descend into the 
valley, that narrows into a tremendous gorge like a 
gigantic Cheddar. 

Little pure streams, the sources of rivers, start out 
from beneath the rocks, as the Ombla in Dalmatia, or 
the Aire at Malham in Yorkshire. 

The towering cliffs take strange shapes, such as the 
" Sleeping knight " or animal forms. A vast amphi- 
theatre opens out of sheer precipices of over 1000 feet, 
and our peasant lad tells of stalactite caverns. He has 
brought candles with him, and we scramble up a goat's 
path to a cave some 300 feet above the footpath to 
a small cavern as yet unexplored. Another of these 
grottos beneath a wall of rock, rising sheer up 
600 feet, is called the Smocza Jama, and not far 
off is the Krakow Klam or defile, and at the end of 
this cleft, between the rocks, was a great bastion 
as Konigstein on the Elbe, but 1000 feet high. One 
rock looked as a great eagle stooping for flight, and 
the whole surroundings were full of wild wonder and 
majestic beauty, the colouring superb, and the fresh 
cool mountain air full of invigorating life. At the 
entrance to the defile, is an excellent block-house 
restaurant, and our guide, in his picturesque Zakopane 
costume, formed a good study as he sat out on the 
grass, sipping his hot light Polish tea. 

Another expedition that gives a wondrous view 
of the great range of the Tatra Mountains is to the 
Bukowiner Hohe, through the picturesque little 

74 



In the High Tatra Mountains 

townlet of Poronin. The peasants peculiar dress is 
of white sheepskin jackets inlaid with coloured 
leathers with astrachan-like collars and fringes. 
Highly decorated breeches with coloured pockets 
and stripes worked down the sides, and red or 
other coloured bobs. A round black hat with 
coloured ribbons or cords is worn. The women love 
a dark red dress, but especially the soft old-gold 
head-dress. 

V When we arrived on the great elevated plateau the 
scene was strangely beautiful. Zakopane lies as it 
were in a quadrangle, and on three sides of it are 
these great chains and peaks that shut it off from 
Hungary, the fourth or plain side is the exit to 
Galicia, and though the wind was bitterly cold, we 
lingered long over the view, for all the peaks 
around were made charming by the cloud effects, 
and we felt that these Tatra Mountains held much 
of glory and beauty as yet unknown save to the 
very few. 

And if Zakopane has so much of natural beauty, 
it is interesting as a health resort ; it has also two 
educational institutions of importance, that all 
interested in art technical training should visit. 
Both the wood-carving and the lace-making schools 
of Zakopane are deservedly famous. 

In the wood-working schools is taught and executed 
the famous Zakopane style of house-decorating and 
wood-carving generally, and, in fact, every fashion of 
manipulating and utilising wood, from the homely 
household utensils to the inspired wood sculpture of 
sacred and dramatic subjects, and in the lace schools 
are produced delicate and original designs from the 

75 



Austria 

richly worked, luxuriously expensive bed coverlets, 
and ladies dresses, to the simply designed collarette. 
Here as everywhere in Austria, this scientific technical 
education is developed, by utility being beautified by 
the artistic. 



7 6 



CHAPTER IX 

THROUGH LEMBERG TO THE BUKOWINA 

G ALICIA, the province so little known to the 
English traveller, is, as we have seen, very 
full of towns and villages and natural 
scenery of varied types. In population 
Galicia ranks as the highest of all the Austrian pro- 
vinces even exceeding the population of the kingdom 
of Bohemia, by a million, and we are now en route, 
away from the mountains over the plain lands to 
Lemberg, the capital of Galicia, and the seat of the 
Galician Diet. 

Lwow, to give the Polish name, or Lemberg, before 
1861, when the Diet was formed, was a poor, almost 
ruined town, undrained, no schools ; then in 1866 a 
Constitution was granted, and to-day, after less than 
fifty years, it is a beautiful city, full of great monu- 
ments, handsome buildings, and lovely parks. The 
Diet House, situated in a charming garden, is a hand- 
some building richly decorated within. 

With a population just upon 200,000 inhabitants, 
there is an air of alertness and vivacity in her streets 
and promenades, that are bordered with handsome 
modern buildings and good statues and monuments 
to her heroes and benefactors, especially a vigorous 
equestrian monument to Sobieski. Perhaps the best 
spot to get a good general view of the town is from 
the very pretty Kilinski Park, whence the swift 

77 



Austria 

development of the town can be studied, and in this 
park is a vivid realistic panorama of the great victory 
of Kosciuszko at Raclawice, near Cracow, wherein all 
the vigorous details give an opportunity of comparing 
the houses and dress of the Galician Polish peasant 
then and to-day. 

From the height in the park the square tower of 
the Rathaus and the dome of the cathedral and all the 
lines of the streets can be traced. Below is the deep 
valley of green pines and birches, and beyond the 
rising hills, and on the right the pyramid of Kopiec, 
and beneath in the pretty gardens of the park, is a fine 
monument to Kilinski, the brave shoemaker patriot, 
who fought bravely in 1796, and, after imprisonment 
in St Petersburg, returned to his shoemaking and 
wrote his valuable recollections. 

Another fine point of view is from the High Castle 
Hill, with a view to the east of the vast plain where 
on August 25th, 1675, Sobieski defeated 40,000 Turks 
and Tartars, and freed the town of Lemberg. 

Away to the east one sees where Russia and Austria 
meet. 

On the north hill is a plateau where the castle once 
stood, and some of the walls are left, and here is a great 
mound piled up by patriotic Poles, and from its 
summit the view can well be studied, including the 
town with its towers and domes and swiftly increasing 
well-designed streets. 

Although so modern in its development the town 
has many noble institutions of benevolence, and 
especially of education, and for trade developments 
its educational establishments are remarkable. I 
called especial attention to these in my report for 

7 8 



Through Lemberg to the Bukowina 

the Board of Education on Technical and Commercial 
Education in Central Europe (c.d. 419), but since that 
visit the schools and institutions have been extended 
by such important buildings as the New Art Trade 
School, opened in 1910, a most spacious building, 
where the pupils are turning out some really remark- 
able work in wood, iron, and other materials, and of 
artistic work generally, and yet another development 
is the Technological Institution, where men who are at 
work can learn the highest technique of their trades. 
An institution that shows the energy and alertness of 
the people, of Lwow to give the Polish name, is the new 
Chamber of Commerce, with its handsome rooms 
superbly decorated with rich marbles and mosaics 
and furnished in soft grey blue tones. The hall is 
illuminated with good frescoes of industries, and 
furnished in excellent taste. All these modern build- 
ings are of local work and illustrate the local technique. 
The Library consists of 60,000 volumes. 

And if Lemberg is developing rapidly she also 
remembers her history, and in the Dzieduszycki 
Museum are some intensely interesting collections of 
prehistoric weapons and peasants' weapons, and 
household utensils and dresses. Two very remark- 
able finds made in 1907, about ten miles from the 
town, are an elephant, almost intact, skin and all, 
and a rhinoceros, found in boring for oil wells, and 
preserved so astoundingly, presumably by the oily 
soil. Another interesting historical museum of books 
and pictures is the Ossolinski Museum, collected by 
Prince Lubomirski. Here the history of Galicia can 
be studied in volume and illustration, and by some 
most interesting relics of bygone days. The churches 

79 



Austria 

are interesting, especially the Roman Catholic and the 
Ruthenian cathedrals. In the former, dating from the 
fourteenth century, a chapel has been illustrated and 
decorated by the professors of the Art School. 

The theatre is always interesting at Lemberg. The 
great classics of all nations are played here and 
the work of their national dramatists. When last 
there I saw a remarkable drama entitled " Eros and 
Psyche," illustrating the antagonistic forces oi ml 
and love over brute passion and strength throughout 
the ages — an absorbing series of scenes most intensely 
rendered. 

How much we must leave out in so short a descrip- 
tion of such a town, where the cultured prosperity of 
its learned residents makes a visit so pleasant. 

The general idea of the city is one of fine open 
streets, with many gardens and promenades, good 
modern buildings and statues, fine churches and 
monasteries, and numerous schools, technical in- 
stitutes, an old university, a modern polytechnic, fine 
banks and shops, and a free eager townspeople, in- 
terspersed with the peasants in their brilliant costume. 
A town with many of the amenities of life, and a 
strenuous populace eager in life's race. 

One word must be said of the Jews, who in their 
long gaberdines, and with long hair and little cork- 
screw curls, form so noticeable a feature in the streets. 
Out of 200,000 inhabitants there are 60,000 Jews. 

The provincial life of the peasant in Galicia may 
well be studied in some of the villages near Lemberg, 
and the artist or photographer can obtain most de- 
lightful pictures of village scenes and peasant homes. 
We drove out one day to the village of Sokolniki, 

80 



Through Lemberg to the Bukowina 

where the houses were bordered on long commons, 
where ducks and geese in crowds revelled in the green 
herbage and the numerous ponds, and the cows and 
horses were grazing in quiet peace where willows 
gave pleasant shade. 

At one clear pond half a dozen women in the most 
brilliant shades of red were busy, washing their many- 
coloured garments. The cottages were interesting, 
hung with holy pictures ; in one living room, where 
was the usual big stove and bed, the room was 
decorated with little figures of Mary and Christ, 
and flowers were in the room, and no less than seven- 
teen sacred pictures around the walls. There was a 
little holy water vase, over which the rosary of beads 
was hung up. This was a home where there were 
six children, and we went into the kilchen, also well 
kept. In another cottage, where a sturdy farmer met 
us, and showed an interest in our being English, we 
had a chat on the holdings and the common rights. 
He turned out to be the Woigt, or Maire, of the 
village. He was dressed in the usual long coarse shirt, 
that comes down to the jackboots, a blue vest and 
white breeches, and a long white coat. In winter 
they wear a grey or fur coat. There was the usual 
school in the village, and little church, and the children 
in reds and blues were a pretty sight as they trooped 
out over the common. At the wells they use the same 
arrangement as the Shaduf in Egypt, and the tillage 
is good, every part of the land being utilised. 

On returning to the city we passed a great cattle 

market with a very large amount of stock, horses, 

ponies, and cattle ; and also small stock, such as 

fowls, geese, etc. The Galician peasants are not 

f 81 



Austria 

so alert and vive as the Bohemians, but they are 
decidedly industrious and solid. 

As we journeyed on down through Galicia we noted 
the activity of the peasants with their second and 
third crops of hay, their horses and cattle, maize, flax, 
and potatoes, hemp being sown between the potatoes, 
and at every village were the flocks of geese. In the 
fields with the cattle were the figures in the grey-white 
coats guarding them, and as we crossed the Dniester 
we had a wide view over the vast plains with, away to 
the west, the distant Carpathians looming up. 

At Jezupol we noted the names of the stations were 
in Ruthenian, as well as in Polish and German. The 
Ruthenians have absolute freedom in Galicia. 

We were nearing now that strange corner of Europe 
the Bukowina, set as it were in a bay of the Carpathians 
and hemmed in by Hungary on the west, Roumania 
on the south, Russia on the east. A veritable epitome, 
we were told, we should find here of Austria, with all 
its varied peoples. 



82 



CHAPTER X 

IN THE BUKOWINA 

HOW slightly many parts of Austria are 
known in England was illustrated by a 
conversation with the well-known his- 
torian, Professor Oman, who, on hearing 
I was about to travel in the Bukowina, said, " I 
only know one Englishman who has ever been in the 
Bukowina, and if you get there you will be the second." 
I sent him a post-card from Zadagora, to prove I had 
" got there." And yet the Bukowina is a peculiarly 
interesting corner of Europe. 

Here are clustered together Poles, Ruthenians, 
Roumanians, Germans, Magyars, Jews, Armenians, 
Bulgarians, Cechs, Lipowaners (i.e. old faith Russians), 
Turks, Gypsies ; and the variety of religions is a 
strange study. Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic, 
Roman Catholic and Armenian Catholic, Armenian 
Orthodox, Old Believers (the Lipowaners), Pro- 
testants ; even the Jews have two sects, orthodox and 
reform. The wealth of the Greek Oriental body is 
very great — it possesses in territory a third of the 
province, largely forest land. The dress of this popula- 
tion is as varied and interesting as their religions. 
And Czernowitz, the capital, is an epitome in 
strangely varied scenes of this independent Crown 
land of Austria, that has its own " Landtag " or local 
parliament. 

83 



Austria 

The Bukowina has also its own weather, and that 
is excessively independent. During the remarkable 
drought in the summer of 1911, which affected other 
parts of Austria, here there were floods and torrents 
of rain for two months. 

In September we visited it, and as we neared 
(jzernowitz we saw the quaint figures of the peasants 
guarding their flocks under umbrellas, and every- 
thing was sodden. In the city, in the Austrian Platz, 
the principle square and market place, the women 
peasants in their white cloth oriental head-dress and 
long brown coats, beneath which hung the long white 
shirt over the bare legs, bore umbrellas ; and the men, 
some in curious little round Garibaldi hats over their 
long wavy hair, wore the long brown skin coats, with 
many buttons, and grey-white breeches, decorated with 
needlework. But the peasants' dress varies according 
to race, and is of great variety. 

The city has very many fine buildings ; the race 
rivalry here, as everywhere in Austria, is a spur to 
perfection, and an interesting way to study the 
variety of the educated classes of the district is 
to visit the " Houses," i.e. clubs of the different 
nationalities. 

In the Polish house is a fine hall for dances, and a 
theatre, the wood-work being all carved in the Zako- 
pane style ; the drop scene is a picture of the Tatra 
district, with a figure of a guide in that local dress. 
Here educational work, and the ever present " Sokol," 
is carried on as in all Slav districts. 

Just opposite is the German national house, a 
remarkably fine building, the courtyard being like a 
bit of old Nuremberg. Here too is a fine theatre with 

84 



In the Bukowina 

rather heavy decorations, and an excellent restaurant 
in old German style. 

In the Roumanian's house one gets the quaint 
Roumanian music, and there is a large garden ; but 
to show there is friendliness between the races, as 
we entered, being with some well-known Poles, 
Polish airs were at once played by the excellent 
orchestra. In the Jewish house was a very big hall 
with gold and red decorations. It is in these houses, 
or national homes, the national character is sustained, 
and retained. The Ruthenians also have their special 
house. 

Perhaps the churches, the religious establishments 
and benevolent institutions should claim the first 
word in Czernowitz, for they are innumerable and 
wonderfully varied ; every creed seems to have its 
hospitals and homes. 

The wealth of the Greek orthodox body is well 
illustrated by the vast palace of the archbishop, a 
building with its many domes and towers and gables, 
that serves too as a seminary and meeting-place of 
the Synod, and rarely could a more imposing and 
richly decorated hall be found than that of the great 
hall where the Synod meets. Its marble arches and 
arcades on black marble columns, supporting a 
deeply coffered, richly decorated ceiling. The walls 
are of alabaster. From the windows are lovely views 
of the palace gardens and the valley of the Pruth. 

Churches of the various sects, and the rich new 
synagogue are all worthy of study for their archi- 
tecture and for the folk and peasantry that frequent 
them, as all are very fervid in their religion. But 
if religious edifices are numerous so also are the civil 

85 



Austria 

buildings. The home of the Landesregierung is a 
handsome simple building with gardens before it, the 
Palais de Justice is also a fine building. 

One of the most striking modern buildings is the 
new Savings Bank, built in the latest Secession style, 
and elaborately fitted up with most modern sanitation, 
ladies and gentlemen's waiting and toilette rooms. 
The council room is upholstered in soft crushed 
strawberry hues, with inlaid woods and elaborate 
electric light fittings. Even the door locks are in 
gilt and in lovely designs. The handsome main 
stairway has stained-glass windows and elaborate 
lamps on the pillars in brass and coloured metal. The 
great hall for general meetings is beautifully decorated, 
and even the chairs are most artistic. The whole 
gives an idea of the thrift of the peasantry who get 
4 per cent, for their cash, and are charged 6 per 
cent, for loans. It is considered an honour to be on 
the council of this bank. 

The Chamber of Commerce is another splendid 
building ; the meeting hall is in grey and red tones, 
with a rich ceiling and handsome electroliers ; the 
chimneys are of red marble and glass mosaics, and 
brass with inlet enamels form part of the decorations. 
Well-executed frescoes of agriculture, industry, and 
Mercury illustrate the object of the Chamber, which 
has widespread correspondence, and works scientific- 
ally, developing local commerce and agriculture. 
It is certainly housed more luxuriously, and holds 
far more classified information than most English 
Chambers of Commerce. 

We were fortunate in our introductions in Czerno- 
witz, and our kindly host, in his artistically furnished 

86 



In the Bukowina 

home, gave us a glimpse of the cultured professional 
home and business life of Czernowitz. 

Music one finds everywhere in Austria, and here, 
as so often elsewhere, our hostess was a lover of art 
and music, and a connoiseur in housekeeping and 
cooking ; one of her hobbies was the collecting of old 
brass-work of Jewish homes and ceremonial, and a 
remarkable collection she had acquired. Her daughter 
spoke English well, and we here had an illustration of 
character, for, at the end of a delightful lunch, our 
artist friend suddenly exclaimed to his fair neighbour : 
" Oh ! I've left my mackintosh in that village, on the 
ground. I was sitting on it." We had left him 
sketching near Sadagora, four miles off, so, instead of 
driving with us to Ludi Horecza, he had to get out to 
Sadagora, where he found his mackintosh hanging 
up on a tree that he might see it ; and a tiny mite 
being near, he gave it some coppers. With these the 
child ran back to its parents, and then there was a 
talk and a struggle ; and at last the small mite came 
timidly back, took the artist's hand and kissed it. 
This is the type of life amidst which we are asked if 
it is safe to travel. 

The little town of Sadogora is a remarkable one, 
reminding one still in its Eastern bazaar-like streets, 
rough mighty cobble stones and mud, of Turkish or 
Russian rule. We cross the Pruth to reach it, and 
pass numerous settlements of Bulgarians, who have 
captured the market-gardening of the district. It 
happened to be a fair day, and crowds of cattle, 
especially horses, were on the road, and many 
peasants picturesquely dressed. The women in the 
market-place were rich in colour, and nearly all had 

8 7 



Austria 

slung over their shoulders their bags in many colours 
of needlework harmonising with the white embroidered 
shirts and many-coloured heavy aprons. 

The great marvel of Sadagora is the synagogue 
and palace, where lives and works the Wonder Rabbi 
Friedmann, to whom come pious or benefit-seeking 
Jews from all parts of Europe. 

We went over the synagogue, and were met by a 
cluster of old Jews in their long robes and curls, and 
they opened the Tara Rolls for our inspection, and 
showed us the rich satin hangings, and then as a great 
favour we were shown (for a consideration) the private 
room of the Wonder Rabbi, with a little peep-hole 
through which he may see, though himself unseen. He 
rarely shows himself, but accepts offerings, and gives 
his blessing and prayers. In this room was a rich 
hanging of about seventeenth-century Spanish needle- 
work for the Rolls, to be used at Pentecost ; we were 
told it cost 70,000 roubles and was given by a devotee, 
who won it in a lottery for 1800 roubles. The palace 
of the Rabbi is opposite the synagogue, and we were 
told strange stories of the gifts given him, and the 
objects of those who sought him out. 

On returning to Czernowitz we drove through 
the Volksgarten with its lovely avenues, shooting 
galleries, and halls for dancing. 

As usual the trades are looked after by education, 
and there are weaving and agricultural schools, and 
English games are played, as out on the vast exercising 
ground we saw football in full swing, several games 
going, but no hopeless, senseless crowd looking on. 

The road out to this breezy downland is called 
Russian Street, and from it a great view is had away 

88 



In the Bukowina 

to the spurs of the Carpathians, the valley of Pruth, 
and the dark forest slopes, whilst in the valleys were 
sugar factories, and breweries and saw-mills, and 
the queer little town of Sadagora in the plains in 
the distance. 

In driving out to the strange little church of Horecza, 
we saw well the peasant homes, little cottages with 
pretty flower gardens, and in a lovely, quiet tree- 
shaded valley we saw the old church, once a mosque. 
Within it is supported by four pillars, and over the 
west door is a fresco of heaven and hell and judg- 
ment. Here, as in the bishop's splendid palace, was 
the sign of the Holy Ghost, a face in the centre of six 
wings ; hung upon this was a handkerchief, as an 
offering, as I have seen shreds of cloth hung in the 
mosque of Omar, and pieces of ribbon on the figures 
of favourite saints in Italy and France. 

There were five tourelles to the church, to represent 
the world's five Continents, and three big towers, 
denoting the dominion of the orthodox Church. 

There are other towns in the Bukowina that are full 
of interest, for the people and their history, and for 
the scenery. 

One of the favourite resorts is Dorna Watra, near 
the Roumanian and Hungarian frontiers, and not far 
from the Siebenburgen. It lies on the mountain spurs, 
about 2500 feet above sea-level, and is a growing health 
resort, with fine Curhaus and baths for gout and 
rheumatism, for which its waters and mud baths 
are most curative. 

There are five sources and two bath establishments, 
and the pretty rivers and picturesque villages make 
it a pleasant resort. 

89 



Austria 

If the Bukowina, this unknown land to Britons, is 
deeply interesting through its marvellously varied 
races, its history has also many points of fascinat- 
ing study. 

It was Finnish-Mongolian in its prehistoric days, 
then Scythian, then Dacian and Gothic, until the Huns 
burst over the land. Later on came the Wends ; 
the Avars and Magyars dominated here until 
the thirteenth century, when we get the Mon- 
golians in this mountain land bay. It is not until 
1360 that real history begins, and in 1395 the Castle 
of Cecina on the hill, that is so prominent in the 
view near Czernowitz, was built. In later times 
Sobieski won a great victory over the Turks at Bojan, 
and the Swedes in the eighteenth century worked 
ravage here, and were defeated near Czernowitz. It 
was not until 1775 that Austria occupied it, and in 
1861 it obtained autonomy, since when it dates its 
rapid development. 

But with this flying glance at what is a strangely 
interesting corner of Europe, we must quit the 
Bukowina, leaving far more than half its history 
unrecorded. 



90 



CHAPTER XI 

IN IMPERIAL VIENNA 

OUR chapters and pictures of some of the 
home lands of the Empire of Austria 
have been as it were but " happy pro- 
logues to the swelling act of the imperial 
theme," and Vienna, the beautiful capital of this 
strangely interesting, diversified Empire, is, the chief 
gem of this mighty jewel set in central Europe, that 
glitters with coruscating flashes, and adds lustre to 
the whole theme. 

The homelands of Austria, as we have seen, and 
shall see, have much self-government, but it is 
Vienna, the seat of the Imperial Parliament, the home 
of the Emperor, that holds these lands and their 
peoples, binding them into one great power. But 
Vienna is not Austria, as Paris is France. Vienna is 
moved and managed by the strong forces that surge 
around her, and she in turn controls and stems those 
forces, and her influence from Parliament and the 
imperial throne, checks and softens too fierce or rash 
developments, that might wreck imperial unity. 

Vienna is placed in a worthy setting for this imperial 
task. 

It is nigh on forty years since I first landed from 
a Danube steamer on her quays, and marvellous have 
been the developments I have watched in frequent 
subsequent visits. To-day Vienna is a beautiful 

9i 



Austria 

city, surpassing, I think, Paris and Berlin, and in her 
environs, in the lovely crownland of Lower Austria, 
she has all around her glories of scenerv unmatched 
by the surroundings of any other capital. 

There are two centres in Vienna, the one in the 
heart of the city, in front of that wonderful build- 
ing with its high, tapering spire, St Stephen's 
cathedral, that for seven hundred years has been a 
holy shrine of the Viennese. The spire that tells of 
Vienna from afar, they owe to Hans of Prachatic, 
that strange, quaint town, where we halted, in 
Bohemia. 

But the work of Hans, after much reparation, had 
to be rebuilt, in the early sixties of the nineteenth 
century. Upon the old tower, they maintained by 
a most ingenious method a system of fire alarm : 
to quote Herr Kohl, who gives an elaborate account 
of the old tower and the struggle to prevent its decay, 
" No less than seven hundred steps must be mounted 
to reach the tower, where the watchers have their 
dwelling and place of abode. The arrangements 
made for ascertaining the exact locality of a fire are 
very peculiar and interesting. On the parapets of the 
four windows, looking east, west, north and south 
are four telescopes. Each glass, or as they call the 
whole apparatus here, every " toposkop " commands 
a fourth of the whole circular sea of houses, stretching 
on every side of the church. Each quadrant is 
divided by circles and radii into sections, and by 
the aid of the glass, the section in which the burning 
house lies, is easily ascertained. The individual 
house is discovered with the same ease. By every 
" toposkop " there lies a thick book containing the 

92 



In Imperial Vienna 

names of all the house owners in each section, and thus 
the house can not only be ascertained but named. 
When the name is found it is written on a slip of paper, 
which is enclosed in a brass ball. This ball is thrown 
down a pipe, and it passes rapidly, like a winged 
messenger of evil tidings, down to the dwelling of the 
sexton, where it is picked up by a watchman con- 
stantly in attendance there, and carried to the city 
authorities. Here it is opened and the name of the 
unfortunate house made known to those whom it may 
concern. In the description the operation appears 
somewhat long, but it is performed with tolerable 
rapidity and certainty, and the " toposkop " can be 
used as well by night as by day. In the more remote 
parts of the suburb, the point is, of course, more 
difficult to ascertain, as the angles of vision and 
position become smaller in the " toposkop." 

At this period the wits of Vienna had a joke about 
St Stephen, who they said had been made a widower 
lately, and upon the innocent stranger asking how 
that could be, the reply was, " Because it has pleased 
the fates and the safety police to relieve him of his 
cross." We must return to St Stephen's ere quitting 
the capital. It is a centre that draws one to it again 
and again. 

The other centre of Vienna is in the beautiful garden 
space on the Ring, where rises up yet another tall 
spire over the handsome Rathaus ; and not far off 
is the classical building wherein sits the Reichstag. 
From these two centres Vienna and Austria are ruled ; 
but from Schonbrunn, on the outskirts of Vienna, 
comes the mighty influencing power of the Imperial 
Crown, for some sixty years borne by Francis Joseph 

93 



Austria 

I., who ever wields the highest controlling power, and 
moulds and bends the authorities for the welfare of 
the State. 

Just a word upon this " Mark " of the East, this 
Oester-Reich and its history. The first mention of its 
being so-called was in 976 under the Babenbergers ; 
and the present reigning family the Habsburgs, under 
Rudolf I., assumed power in 1278. But it was not 
until 1526, after all the turmoil and fighting of the 
distracted fifteenth century, with the fierce religious 
factions, and in the midst of the Turkish wars, 
that by conjunction with the kingdoms of Bohemia 
and Hungary, Austria became a monarchy. The 
history of the evolution and development of this 
monarchy into the powerful Empire it has become 
is full of fiercely dramatic, tragic, and romantic 
incidents, and Vienna has been the centre of this 
drama. 

From this modern centre of the capital, where we 
halted before the Rathaus, to get a glimpse at her 
history, the picturesque tree and garden-planted Ring 
encircles the city, and by electric tram, or in a 
droshky, we can visit all the historic spots, the great 
ecclesiastical and lay monuments, that so richly 
embellish Vienna. 

A statue of Pallas Athenae rises before the Greek 
portico of the Parliament House, a statue that has 
given opportunity to the wits of Vienna to say that 
they have placed all the learning outside the building, 
but the coup d'atil from this statue of all the great and 
handsome buildings around, with the lovely well-kept 
gardens surrounding them, is one difficult to surpass 
for beauty. 

94 



In Imperial Vienna 

The Rathaus, the Hofburg Theatre, the University, 
the delicate gothic of the Votive Church, and stretch- 
ing away to the right the long line of trees, and the 
vast handsome buildings of the Imperial Museum, 
with its superb collections of industrial art, and the 
famous picture gallery, that holds the collections once 
housed in the Belvedere, and very much more of in- 
estimable value, all these handsome and interesting 
buildings are in view. Many and many a day can 
be spent on this Ring, amidst the art treasures, and in 
the museums housed in the Rathaus and elsewhere ; 
in the Volksgarten, that is on the other side of the 
Ring, is music, such as the Viennese love ; whilst not 
far off is the luxurious and artistic opera house. On 
the other side of the Ring, round about the Schiller- 
Platz, are many of the public official offices of the 
Empire. As throughout Austria, music is everywhere 
in Vienna ; the Austrian military bands are certainly 
the finest in Europe for delicacy and expressiveness 
of execution, and the various orchestras, under en- 
thusiastic directors, give excellent renderings of the 
best music ; of course never forgetting the light 
joyous music the Viennese love. The museums, 
picture galleries, and educational establishments of 
Vienna are excessively numerous, and if Vienna has 
no such mighty High Technical school of such collossal 
proportions as Charlottenburg, Austria's system, as 
we have seen, of this type of education, and the 
Polytechnic and textile and technical schools here, 
and spread everywhere through the Empire, have 
perhaps done more for the artisan of Austria and the 
artistic trades of the Empire than has the system of 
Germany. Yet other valuable agencies for developing 

95 



Austria 

the trade and commerce of the Empire are the 
Chambers of Commerce, and in Vienna is established 
one of the most handsomely housed, and minutely 
appointed and well organised chambers it is possible 
to imagine. A handsome building with well-appointed 
rooms for council and general meetings ; maps, 
and a very exhaustive library of reference, and 
docketed statistics, with information upon every part 
of the world where the Austrian manufacturer or 
merchant may hope to do business. The chamber, 
that is supported as are all the Austrian chambers, by 
a slight tax from all trades however small, has sent 
out important embassies over the world, to bring back 
samples, prices, and business regulations, for the in- 
formation of Austrian business men. 

Very numerous are the philanthropic institutions 
in Vienna, and the poor relief system is less calculated 
to make unemployables than our own system, and 
some of their charitable institutions are marvel- 
lously equipped, notably the N.O. Landes — Central 
Kinderheim, a foundling hospital, called a Home 
(Heim) to get rid of the term foundling, opened in 
1910 and governed by the Province. There are about 
17,000 children in all under the care of this Home, 
mostly, of course, boarded out. In the Home the 
mothers and the infants are marvellously cared for in 
spotlessly clean rooms, with every possible medical 
and surgical aid. The very latest scientific discoveries 
are available, and the power- driving fires are arranged 
with a new smokeless invention, so that the neighbour- 
hood is not injured by the smoke of the chimneys. 

If Vienna cares for the poor, and her sick, she by 
no means forgets enjoyment. The " Lustige Wiener," 

96 




«*»r*SM«sr:^' 



,<"** 



\ 







■ 



.— - 



In Imperial Vienna 

the joyous Viennese, is no false appellation. If the 
climate is somewhat treacherous, and the extremes of 
heat and cold are very great in Vienna, and the changes 
very sudden, the open air life in Vienna is revelled in, 
and numerous are the parks and gardens where ex- 
cellent or jovial music, and good entertainment is 
to be had. In the centre of the town there is the 
Volksgarten, and all the world goes to the Prater, 
the long beautiful drive, with gardens on either side, 
that runs for miles from the canal in the centre of the 
city down to the Danube. 

Here is every type of amusement, and every class 
of restaurant, from the aristocratic Sacher down to 
the cheapest beer garden, but all with music. The 
whole park has over 4000 acres of space, and it is one 
of the prettiest sights in Europe to see there the 
children's first communion procession in carriages at 
Whitsuntide. The children are dressed all in white 
with white flower- decorated carriages; or one may 
see the more elaborately decorated vehicles for a 
Flower Corso, when the fair beauties of Vienna 
strive to outrival each other in their personal beauty, 
or the artistry of the decorations of their carriages 
or triumphal car, and also in their horses, for the 
Viennese pride themselves on their horseflesh. 
x All around Vienna are beautiful spots of public 
resort. One of the nearest being Schonbrunn, the 
usual residence of the Emperor ; this with its well-kept 
Versailles-like gardens, always open to the public, and 
its famous Gloriette, from whence is a far entrancing 
view, is a favourite resort of the Viennese. Here 
lodged Napoleon, and here lived and died his son, the 
young Duke of Reichstadt, "L'Aiglon." Another 
g 97 



Austria 

spot of interest is the Kahlenberg, reached either by 
steamboat or railway, and especially interesting from 
the fact that on the mountain slope is the garden or 
walk, where Beethoven loved to stroll. From the 
summit is a glorious view of the vast city on the plain 
below, the far winding Danube, and the lower spurs 
of the Carpathians, and the Styrian Alps. 

Not far off is a newer resort, with a splendidly 
arranged people's restaurant and garden, the Krap- 
fenwald, where thousands can hear good music, 
and get good refreshments and intellectual entertain- 
ment, at very low prices, and near by on another height 
is a more luxurious and expensive resort, the Cobenzl, 
with its luxuriously appointed castle hotel and 
restaurant ; from the terrace is a splendid panorama 
of the country around. 

An interesting proof of Vienna's advancement in 
all modern developments, is her series of handsomely 
fitted drawing-room tram cars ; by which tourists in 
parties can visit the city and its environs. The tram 
cars have polished wood panellings, lounge chairs, 
smoking and writing tables ; and they halt in sidings, 
while visits are paid to the various churches and show 
places, making day or half day tours. But as a set off 
against this the cabs (Droshkys) are very expensive 
and not good ; the peculiar system of extras for the 
railway stations is irritating to travellers. 

The reader who longs for statistics as proof and 
evidence of the strivings and prosperity of the 
country will find a mass of figures that are very full of 
interest not only to the statistician, but to the ethnol- 
ogist and philanthropist, in the volume issued by the 
Royal and Imperial Statistical Central Commission, 

98 



In Imperial Vienna 

entitled, " Oesterreichisches Statistisches Handbuch " 
and in the " Statistisches Jahrbuch der Autonomen 
Landesverwaltung," etc. 

There is no space, or place, in this descriptive 
volume for many figures, but before leaving the 
capital of the Empire, just a glimpse may perhaps be 
allowed into the figures that prove how this composite 
Empire of seventeen homelands is made up. 

In the question of population and race, the Slavs 
and Poles number over 10,000,000, the Germans over 
9,000,000, and the Ruthenians, Serbs, Croats, Italians, 
etc., over 6,000,000. There are also the Jews and 
residents of other nationalities. The homelands with 
the greatest population are Galicia, with over 7,000,000, 
Bohemia with more than 6,000,000, Lower Austria, 
that contains Vienna, with over 3,000,000, and 
Moravia with about 2,000,000, and the Steirmark, 
Styria, with 1,500,000 inhabitants. No other land or 
province has over 1,000,000 inhabitants in its borders. 

In the matter of tourists and visitors to watering 
places, Bohemia, as in matters of finance, comes out 
easily first, she having about 130,000 guests yearly ; 
whilst Lower Austria, which comes next, has about 
75,000 guests visiting her health resorts. 

The figures referring to technical schools and 
agricultural and forestry schools, are full of significance, 
as also are those relating to the commercial schools, 
and the Chambers of Commerce ; all go to show what a 
remarkable system has been built up by self-help and 
governmental organisation, and the eagerness of the 
people to take advantage of these well- organised 
institutions. 

In the trade schools, the continuation and drawing 

99 



Austria 

schools, and the agricultural and forestry schools, 
Bohemia is first in the number of pupils attending. 
Lower Austria comes next, and Moravia follows, but 
at a long distance. 

In the matter of newspapers, Lower Austria with 
the capital leads, with an issue of about 1300 journals, 
Bohemia follows with over 1100, Moravia and Galicia 
being again third and fourth, and so above the other 
districts. The system of savings banks is well 
organised ; as we have seen the buildings are generally 
handsome in construction, and the arrangements assist 
thrift and largely help the development of the 
country. In Bohemia there are 216 Gemeindes and 
town savings banks, 9 Verein or society's banks, and 
three district banks, in all 228. In Lower Austria, 
53 Gemeinde and 29 Verein, in all 82 ; in Moravia, 82 
Gemeinde and 4 Verein, in all 86 banks ; and in every 
province there are a goodly number of these banks, 
and the amounts deposited are very considerable. 

Even the most casual tourist will note the excellent 
tillage nearly everywhere in Austria, hardly a scrap 
of ground being uncultivated, and the statistics given 
of the mileage of roads planted with fruit trees prove 
how careful the peasant holders are of land space, and, 
as many of the roads are district property, how the 
communes combine for the general good. 

The disposal of the produce of the land is largely 
helped by the river traffic, and one of the great 
interests on the river boats is to watch the varied 
peasantry dealing with their produce, passing with 
loads of their wares to and fro to the markets by this 
means of transit ; and of course heavier traffic in corn^ 
etc., is also so dealt with. 

ioo 



In Imperial Vienna 

In the matter of factories, both large and small, as 
also in the case of house and home labour, the statistics 
prove that the order of precedence with the varied 
homelands is much the same, Bohemia having the 
largest number employed in industrial work ; Galicia 
comes next, followed by Lower Austria, and then comes 
Moravia. In the matter of what are known as giant 
(Riesen) establishments, that is establishments muster- 
ing over 1000 hands, Bohemia has 33 such works, 
Moravia 20, Lower Austria 16, Silesia 14, and Galicia 
only 9, whilst in the smaller workshops Galicia comes 
second. 

In spite of the fact that, as everywhere in Europe, 
prices have risen greatly during the last few years, 
living is very cheap in Austria, and the staple com- 
modities, such as bread, potatoes, are very low in price, 
and often, in the restaurants, the cheapest dishes 
to have in Austria are exactly what would be dearest 
in England, such as venison, partridge, omelettes, etc. 

These few figures will give some slight insight into 
the general life of the people, and prove which are the 
provinces that largely maintain the wealth of the 
Austrian Empire, although, as we shall see as we pass 
onward through the other lands, there is everywhere 
a wealth of natural beauty and an industrious folk ; 
but the other lands than these four principal divisions 
are more occupied with agriculture and forestry, and 
have not so thick a population dealing in great 
industries. 

Some reference must be made to the government 
of this Empire of Austria that with the kingdom of 
Hungary forms the great balancing power of Central 
Europe. 

IOI 



Austria 

There are two books which have appeared during 
the twentieth century, in the last decade, that are 
very useful towards getting some grasp of the central 
and local government of Austria, one in French, 
" L'Autriche a l'aube de XX Siecle," by Max Marse, 
the other a voluminous work full of detail and statis- 
tics, " Austria-Hungary," by Geoffrey Drage ; for the 
latest figures, of course, we must go to the latest 
Government publications, and to the publications of 
the various provinces and cities ; in this volume it 
is only possible to give a slight sketch of the system 
of government adopted, the better to understand the 
life of the people in this complex Empire. 

The central authority is the Reichsrath, and for 
local matters there are seventeen diets or provincial 
parliaments, and these deal with all local taxation, 
public works, sanitation, the control of all charit- 
able institutions, etc. ; in many provinces we have 
seen the handsome buildings arranged for the local 
diets. 

The Reichsrath, i.e. the House of Lords and House 
of Deputies, deals with the army and navy estimates 
and general budget; railways, education, public 
health, right of meeting, the press, general imperial 
matters ; and complaint is made that since the in- 
troduction of payment of members the professional 
delegate has greatly increased. 

There are also councils for the communes and for 
the towns, and the progressive districts force on their 
local councils towards the advancement of each 
especial district, and in travelling through the various 
cities and communes the work of the council, whether 
progressive or dilatory, is soon in evidence, and the 

102 



In Imperial Vienna 

progressive are in a far larger majority than the 
laissez faire bodies. 

There is great freedom in Austria. In coming 
either from Russia or from Germany, especially from 
the Polish provinces, this freedom is at once evident. 
In Austria everyone has a right to speak in his own 
tongue, and to sing his own songs ; there is great 
freedom of the Press, and freedom of meeting, and in 
1907 Universal Suffrage was introduced for all men 
over twenty-four. I was present at the first Universal 
Suffrage election, and there was absolute freedom of 
voting. 

The economic situation of Austria has greatly im- 
proved ; there is a notable increase of the people's 
savings deposited in the banks, amounting almost to 
the savings of the French people, and the credit of the 
National Bank is such that the rate of discount is on a 
par with the other great powers. 

This has been brought about by the vigorous action 
of the Government. One of the notable examples of 
prompt and valuable action was in 1901, when at a 
probable period of depression, that did have a great 
effect in other countries, great works were undertaken 
by the State, especially the development of important 
productive railways to be carried out from 1901 to 
1905. Six great lines were projected and eighteen 
lesser lines, and some most important canals and river 
development work, and, says Max Marse, the in- 
dustrial life of Austria received an immense impulse 
from this work. As we pass over some of these new 
lines, the additional local impulse and development 
will be very evident. To quote Geoffrey Drage, " Not 
only has the State acquired vast assets in constructive 

103 



Austria 

works, but, as may be seen by the steadiness of the 
Government bonds, it has placed its credit on a sound 
footing." 

Mention has already been made of the excellent 
mode in which local industries are fostered and 
advanced and expounded by education. Mr Drage 
makes very numerous references to my Report on 
Technical and Commercial Education (CD. 419) in 
Austria and especially Bohemia, issued by the Board of 
Education in 1900, and as we travel on we shall see 
more of the outcome of this valuable educational 
system. The State aids largely also museums and 
libraries, which so advantageously help scientific and 
professional education, and fosters this education by 
scholarships. But this work is also greatly aided by 
the " pious donor " and benefactor, and by self-help 
and local patriotism. 

Since 1873, the date of my first visit to Austria, 
there has come a great change over the industrial 
life in town and country. Hours have been lessened, 
wages increased, and the sanitation in the works 
marvellously improved, until to-day many are far in 
advance of our English workshops ; especially is this 
noticeable in the glass works, and also in the machine 
works, as we saw at Pilsen ; but still the rate of wage 
is low, but the manner of living is economic. 

The army of the Dual Empire commands 2,250,000 
men, for in this Hungary must be included (although 
this volume is not referring in any way to the kingdom 
of Hungary). The navy is also rapidly developing, 
and will shortly bring Austria into the rank of one 
of the great naval powers. That most delightful 
historian and far-seeing man, Palacky, the author 

104 



In Imperial Vienna 

of the great history of Bohemia, in 1848, said, in a 
work entitled " Oesterreichs Staatsidee," that the 
upholding of the Austrian Empire was a political 
necessity ; and that if it were not, it must be created ; 
and all in Austria and Hungary know this. 

All the various races are earnestly struggling for 
development ; for race advancement ; and in England 
we get most exaggerated reports of the strife between 
these races ; but speak to Cecil, or Pole, or Hungarian, 
all of whom are ardent patriots, devotees of their own 
race, and the suggestion that the Austrian Empire 
should break up is at once scouted as impossible — 
" should there come a common danger all would unite 
at once " were the words of one of the most eminent 
of these patriots. 

We have referred to the balance of population in 
Austria, but the better to understand the race diffi- 
culties and aspirations we give the division of the 
population in Austria and Hungary. This amounts 
to 48^ millions, and is divided into 24 million Slavs, 
11 million Germans, 8| million Magyars, 3 million 
Roumanians, and | of a million Italians, and there are 
Jews, etc. 

This slight review of the political and industrial 
situation in Austria may, as we travel onward 
through their glorious inheritance, help to illuminate 
the life of the Austrian people whilst we are still halt- 
ing in the midst of her capital, which in her artistic 
and beneficent development has proved that her civic 
rulers recognise the magnitude of their city, and the 
dignity due to the capital of the Empire. 

One can see in Vienna, especially on holy days, 
large groups of the rural population visiting some 

105 



Austria 

especial shrine in the vast cathedral of St Stephen. 
They enter, a picturesque, parti-coloured group in 
their local distinctive costume, that at once tells the 
district from whence they come. Some white-headed 
old man leads them, perhaps bearing a small banner 
or cross. The clatter of their feet is subdued as they 
slowly reach the centre of the nave, and then they 
halt, and for a few moments all look around in 
wonder at the upsoaring sombre columns, intensified 
with the glory of the coloured windows : and then, 
slowly, the women in their brilliant head-dresses bow 
their heads, and the men, bareheaded, bend also in 
reverence, and the whole mass of varied colour sinks 
slowly to the earth, and the silent prayers go up in this 
glorious building, grey and sombre with antiquity, 
for those left at home in the distant villages. 

The evening service is always a favourite one at 
St Stephen's, for then all are permitted to go up to the 
high altar, and one can sit in the richly carved stalls, 
and before the service begins, become absorbed in the 
beauty of form and colour, and all the fascinations of 
history that are around us. The building goes back 
to just before the power of the Habsburgs took rule 
over Austria, and from that date till late in the 
fifteenth century it was continually being enriched 
with additional work. 

There is one other church we must refer to for its 
historic interest, as it is the modern burial-place of the 
Imperial family, and the tragic deaths of so many of 
the Habsburgs make this one of the saddest spots to 
visit it is possible to conceive. As the long-robed 
monk shows tomb after tomb, all the fierce tragic 
history of this family comes visibly to the mind. Here 

106 




Mil. TOWER OF SI STEPHEN S, VIENNA 



In Imperial Vienna 

is also the tomb of " L'Aiglon," the young Duke of 
Reichstadt, Napoleon's son ; but one is glad to ascend 
again to the upper air, and pass onward into the brisk 
life of the city, and we are quickly in the Hof Garten, 
amidst the flowers and trees, and pass thence into the 
Volksgarten, where the music rings forth, and the gay 
throng recalls us to all the bright joyous life that the 
Viennese love : although their life is by no means a 
life pour rire, or pour s'amuser, as we have seen from 
the hints at the energetic, strenuous advancement in 
science, art, and commerce that her palatial buildings, 
the homes of these arts, prove she loves and reveres. 

Vienna is a city to linger in, and to visit and re-visit ; 
then gradually all the wealth of her institutions, her 
museums, libraries, art galleries, and public buildings 
slowly prove their immensity, and the enormous 
interest and value of the collections. The history 
of Austria can then be better understood, and one 
sallies forth by the gate of the glorious river, the 
Danube, into one of the most picturesque and historic 
districts the world has to show. 



107 



CHAPTER XII 

LOWER AUSTRIA THE SEMMERING 

THE two crown lands of Lower and Upper 
Austria are small in extent, but they are 
of great importance geographically and 
historically. 

Lower Austria as the seat of the capital, and as 
containing a stretch of the Danube that is com- 
mercially of great value, and historically of the 
deepest interest ; it also contains some remarkable 
mountain scenery, the popular region of the 
Semmering. 

At the Prater Quay is the large building wherein 
the vast business of the Danube Steamship Company 
is transacted, and by one of their handsome saloon 
boats we can most comfortably visit all the scenes on 
the Danube. Before quitting Vienna we must say a 
word upon the work of this company, that is of great 
importance commercially and from the tourist point 
of view. They run 45 passenger boats, 89 freight 
steamers, and have a fleet of 838 merchandise boats, 
the latter with nearly half a million tonnage. 

Their saloon steamers are handsome vessels, ex- 
tremely well found, and with good restaurants on 
board, and with some special cabins for sleeping, 
ranging from two to six in number, on each boat, but 
with made-up beds in the saloon, which are quite 
comfortable, ranging from a dozen up to forty. 

108 



Lower Austria — The Semmering 

One can live delightfully and very cheaply on these 
boats, the charge for meals being very reasonable, 
and the cost of a bed per night is two kroner, i.e. 
Is. 8d. It is of interest to note that " By Imperial 
Patent First Danube Steam-Navigation Company " 
was granted to John Andrews and Joseph Prichards 
on April 17, 1828, and their first boat ran on Septem- 
ber 17, 1830, an earlier attempt to start steamboats on 
the Danube having failed. 

The boundary of Lower Austria stretches to Enns, 
nearly to Linz, the capital of Upper Austria, and 
through this province the Danube would bear us to 
within sight of Passau in Bavaria, but we must leave 
our excursion upon the Danube until our return from 
the Adriatic, and link this lower stretch of the river 
with the chapter upon Upper Austria ; for the 
course of the Danube through Austria is through 
these two crown lands, quitting Bavaria just after 
leaving Passau, running through Upper Austria to 
Linz, and on through Lower Austria to Vienna, 
and entering Hungary just before reaching Posony 
(Pressburg). 

If Lower Austria thus includes some most deeply 
interesting and romantically beautiful river scenery, 
it also embraces a succession of towns and villages 
situated upon upland slopes and lofty mountain 
ranges, with scenery of the most varied and idyllic 
beauty. 

The Viennese are thus most fortunate, placed in the 
heart of Europe, with these delightful pleasure and 
health resorts at their doors. 

The mountains claim us first, and we run south 
from Vienna by the Southern Railway, through a part 

109 



Austria 

of Lower Austria that has become the playground of 
Vienna. 

It is curious to call on an official in Vienna, and to 
hear he is at Baden, and then to be told that he comes 
in every morning ; but this Baden, only seventeen 
miles from Vienna, is a pleasant town on the varied 
hill slopes, rising above the little river Schwechat that 
has become a favourite watering-place, the Richmond 
of Vienna, with good hotels, Curhaus, and, of course, 
good music, and plenty of amusements and baths. 
The hills around run up to 1000 and 1500 feet, giving 
health and picturesque promenades. 

But far more glorious scenery awaits us as we go 
farther south, running through the vine district of 
Voslau, that produces the excellent red and white 
wine known by that name. 

The whole district is picturesque and full of scenes 
that make walking excursions in the district a delight. 
Castles and ruins and pretty villages, and scattered 
towns that are pleasant halting-places, and as at 
Wiener Neustadt the historian and antiquary will 
find much to detain him. 

In not so far bygone days the railway broke off, 
and we had to go by diligence over the Semmering 
Pass, but since 1854 this mountain chain has been 
conquered by the iron road, and one can quickly be at 
the summit, 3000 to 4000 feet above sea-level. 

Austria is famous for its remarkably beautiful 
mountain railways, as the Arlberg and the new 
Tauern railways ; but if these are grandiose, we 
shall cross them both shortly, yet this Semmering 
railway is hardly surpassed by them in strange 
beauty and sudden surprises. 

no 



Lower Austria — The Semmering 

The mountain pass, that now by steam links Vienna 
with the Adriatic, has ever been a route from Central 
Europe to the east ; and in 1184 Markgraf Ottokar V. 
built a refuge or hospice here, as a halting-place 
for the pilgrims to the Holy Land. The little town of 
Spittal, on the southern slope of the range, by its name, 
commemorates this fact, and the pass was used for 
heavy goods, and became an important route in the 
fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, But 
it appears that, not until 1728, was a really good 
road made over this pass, and then it was necessary to 
utilise a couple of hundred horses daily to assist the 
hauling of goods over the pass. The new road, super- 
seded by the railway, but still used for local traffic 
and pedestrians, was made in 1841. 

It was a certain Karl Ghega, an Austrian, born in 
Vienna, and a Doctor of Mathematics of Padua, who, 
at the age of eighteen, becoming an Austrian official 
in the Works Department, became enamoured with 
the development of railways in England, and visited 
that country, and Germany, Belgium, and France, 
to study railway work, in 1836 and 1837, and again 
he made a second visit to England in 1842, when he 
also went to America, and after a tremendous struggle 
against opponents of every type, including his brother 
engineers and the Press, the work was carried 
through, and after trial trips the line was opened 
for passenger traffic on the 17th July 1854, the 
Emperor Francis Joseph, a young man of twenty-four, 
being the first passenger. 

And truly it has opened a wealth of beauty and 
a wonder of continuous sudden changes and surprises 
to the traveller. 

in 



Austria 

At Gloggnitz, one is still in the lowlands, with rich 
fields, through which the river winds, and cultured 
uplands. Then quickly we begin to ascend, and the 
marvel of this early engineering feat begins to excite 
one. 

We twist round hill sides, through tunnels, and 
getting different views of scenes, now on a level, then 
far below, catching glimpses of snow on the heights 
far above. We are rising up from the level of vine- 
yards to the pine level ; the views embrace vast 
stretches of landscape or deep, rocky ravines, with, 
as at Klamm, a grand old castle ruin perched on its 
rocky height. Then we crawl round on a dizzy 
viaduct that gives a grand glimpse down through 
the pines to the rich valleys, and so skirt the vast, 
rocky wall of the Weinzettelwand, perhaps one of the 
finest, if not most dramatic, scenes on the route. A 
double tiered viaduct, 150 feet high, takes us over 
the deep Kalte Rinne, that is a ravine wide enough 
to give us time for a good long look at the very 
beautiful view. Another viaduct, not of so dizzy 
a height, leads us on to more tunnels, and we pull up 
at the Semmering Station. 

Just a couple of hours from the plainland and 
crowded city streets of Vienna, and here we are amidst 
the scent of the pines, with peasant girls offering one 
Edelweiss blossoms. A trudge up through the wind- 
ing forest road quickly brings one to the villas and 
hotels of the Semmering. 

We tramped up this road once on September 16th, a 
hot fatiguing walk in the heat, but misty clouds swept 
round us, and on the morning of the 17th, when we 
awoke, snow lay all around, and from the terrace 

112 



Lower Austria — The Semmering 

of the hotel (built by the Southern Railway) there 
was a vast view of rocky, bare mountain ranges and 
pine-clad peaks, all glittering in the first, pure snow 
of autumn. One can be quickly in the deep silent 
forest of the resinous pines, and in winter, skiing and 
toboganning is to be had on splendid runs. 

On another occasion when, in May, I was again on 
the Semmering, at a luncheon on the great balcony 
where one can sit and revel in such a glorious view, 
it was my lot to propose prosperity to Austria. 
With such a vast view of this corner of the beauty of 
that Empire, the words of Goethe came to my mind — 

" Oh wunderschon ist Gottes Erde 
Und schon aur Ihr, ein Mensch zu sein." 

The pure exhilarating air, the vast scene, the strange, 
delightful beauty made one feel — 

" God's in His Heaven, all's right with the world." 

We could look out northward over the beautiful 
province of Lower Austria, that has other charms 
in its river scenery to call us back again ; for on the 
Semmering we are on its frontier, and in descending 
the heights on the southern side we shall enter 
Styria, the ancient Steirmark of Austria. 



h 113 



CHAPTER XIII 

STYRIA (THE STEIERMARK) AND GRAZ 

THE province or dukedom of Styria is but 
very little known to the English-speaking 
traveller, and to say you are English, 
especially if one confesses to a desire to 
study more nearly than en passant the life in the towns 
and in the villages of this fair province, is at once to 
receive from every section of the people a hearty 
welcome, and every assistance to gain a knowledge of 
their historic monuments and their ofttimes quaint 
folklore. 

The entry into this province, via the Semmering, is 
so very beautiful, one has a presentiment there must 
come a reaction from the elation of mind at the 
remarkable scenery that one looks out upon, as we 
emerge from the tunnel, some 3000 feet up on the 
mountain height. We know we are slowly dropping 
down to the sea-level of the Adriatic. But as we 
drop to the plain level and from snowy mountain 
heights, wander amidst low-lying towns, surprises are 
in store that intensely stir the mind, and allow no 
dull moment of apathy to clog the brain with weariness 
or ennui. 

The Steiermark is a large province, and we shall skirt 
its western frontier when running through the Tauern 
Mountains ; but in descending to Triest we run 
through its entire length, from north to south, and 

114 



Styria (The Steiermark) and Graz 

so get a fair idea of its fertile land and pleasant 
towns. 

There are about a million and a half inhabitants in 
the province, nearly a million being Germans, the rest 
of Slav or Slovak origin, with a sprinkling of Italians, 
Poles, and Croats. Agriculture is the principal in- 
dustry ; in fact, a local writer in piteous tones pleads 
that the capital, Graz, is not a " world town " with 
many chimneys and great industries. But even as 
we descend from the mountain heights, we quickly 
see that forestry and agriculture are scientifically 
developed. 

We have already descended about 800 feet when we 
arrive at Miirzzuschlag, where the river Murz, that 
afterwards becomes the greater Mur, winds through a 
lovely valley embowered in low, forest-clad hills, the 
higher crags towering above. Here is a good halting- 
place for the botanist or geologist, for these hills have 
a rich flora and varied geological formations. 

The valleys, as we creep downwards, are smilingly 
prosperous, and here and there, as at Wartberg, a fine 
old ruin gives work for the historian, and interest to 
the archaeologist. Often, in early spring and in autumn, 
this valley is flooded, and the rush of water is tre- 
mendous. That there is a certain amount of artisan 
life in the district is evidenced at Bruck, where many 
busy factories pour forth their workers in the evening. 
Here the lines branch off for Villach and the Kara- 
wanken Alps, and for the lakes in the Salzkammergut, 
and it is but a short run for Ischl. All these places we 
shall visit later on, continuing now, down on the 
southern route, for another thirty-four miles to the 
capital town of Styria, Graz. 

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Austria 

Graz 

Graz, formerly spelt Gratz and pronounced 
" Grates," rhyming to " gerate " (it has succeeded), 
as a quaint poem by Gottfried Leitner expresses it, 
in relating the legend of the founding of the town by 
wanderers from the bank of the Isar in Bavaria. 
But Graz goes back to Celtic and Roman times, and 
the museums in this and neighbouring towns are very 
rich from finds in the district. 

Throughout this volume we are utilising notes 
made on the spot, and the pamphlets and volumes 
issued locally upon the history of the district. In 
nearly every town in Austria there is always a learned 
knot of enthusiasts who love their homeland, and 
are proud of its history ; and someone, schoolmaster, 
curator, priest, or historian, as a labour of love, 
produces a book that is generally very interesting; 
and there are also the unions or societies for pro- 
moting tourist travel in every centre, who also issue 
useful booklets, often very well written. 

Here in Graz, in addition to local guides, there is a 
most carefully written history of the Steiermark by 
Dr F. Mayer, the Director of the " Landes-Ober- 
realschule " (Higher modern school). The title page 
of this gives a quaint view of the town in 1634, with 
the castle and fortress on the precipitous, rocky 
plateau above the river Mur, and the numerous 
domes, spires and towers on either side of the river. 
The picturesque castle height, with its strong, red 
tower, at once arrests the eye, as one runs into the 
town. This Schlossberg is the acropolis of the 
Steiermark, and one instinctively makes for it on 

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Styria (The Steiermark) and Graz 

arriving in the town, which is the capital of the Mark, 
and returns to it again and again, either wandering 
up through the lovely parks and gardens below, or 
quickly reaching the summit, 1650 feet above sea- 
level, by a lift. 

From the plateau is a vast view of the great plain 
and the dark-red roofed town, the grey Mur rushing 
through the midst of the city ; the last time I looked 
upon it, it was in flood, a fierce, turbulent river. 

Away to the south is a low range of hills, and beyond 
is the vast loom of the mountains ; and at the west side 
of the hill one looks down on a lovely valley, through 
which pierces the Mur, whilst beyond to the north 
are all the piled Alps, the dark forest slopes, and 
nearer the picturesque hills and dotted villas. 

At the spot where this view comes in, is a monument, 
a Hon defending a flag, erected " To the heroic 
defenders of this Schlossberg against French domin- 
ance, 1809," erected in 1909. 

Below to the south-east lies the vast town, filling 
much space, with many trees shaded between the 
houses. At sunset, the bells ring out from the many 
church towers, and seem to tell of the life of the 
city. 

Upon this height, as we look out over so much of 
Steiermark, we can listen to a few words about the life 
of the people of this important homeland of Austria ; 
for the story of the settling of this Markgrave gives 
an idea of the race struggles through the ages in 
all Austria, where sometimes one race, sometimes 
another, has remained dominant, or in the 
majority. 

In the fifth or sixth century before Christ, the Celtic 

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Austria 

folk overran this district, driving out the earlier 
people of whom little is known, save that they lived 
by hunting and fishing, and by the land. Probably 
about the same period the Etruscans, those artistic 
settlers in North Italy, came over the Alps for their 
commerce, and brought their products here, their 
weapons, their household implements, vases, and 
household and personal ornaments ; and as the 
Etruscans faded from history, the Roman merchants 
took up the story, and from the Roman port of 
Aquileia (towards which we are travelling) came also 
to the plains and the valleys of the Mur, and brought 
their industrial products in exchange for the agri- 
cultural products of the district. 

The Noric branch of the Celts were not merely 
agriculturists ; they understood mining and many 
trades, and lived in towns and did much business, 
especially with salt. They understood mining for 
copper, iron, and gold, obtaining the latter also from 
the rivers, and they wove woollen articles, making 
ten varieties of material from sheep's wool, and by a 
mixture of copper and tin produced a fine, gold-like 
bronze that they used for weapons and implements, 
and the excellence of Noric iron weapons was re- 
nowned. They also coined money, imprinted with 
Roman letters. 

Many of these articles have been found in the 
Tumuli and urn burying-places, and some beautiful 
examples are in the Graz Landes Museum. In Maria 
Rast a great find was made of over a hundred urns 
with bracelets, brooches, rings, etc. ; these also are in 
the Joanneum Museum in Graz. 

In the year 113 b.c. the Romans had assisted these 

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Styria (The Steiermark) and Graz 

Celtic tribes against the Teutons, and later on the 
Steiermark became part of the Roman province of 
Norricum, and the Celtic roads were developed, and 
Roman roads, especially the great military road from 
Aquileia on the Adriatic, to the famous Danube road, 
ran through the land, with, of course, the usual 
stations and military forts or castles. Valuable 
remains of this Roman period are in the museum, as 
well as relics of the various religions of the Celts, and 
all the various gods the Romans brought in their 
train, Egyptian, Syrian, and especially Mithras, the 
Sun god of the Persians, to whom many altars were 
erected. Christianity was early adopted ; the precise 
date is not known, but in the persecution of Diocletian 
in 303 a Bishop Victorin suffered martyrdom, and in 
the fifth century the Church here was well organised. 
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire the Avars, 
and with them the Slavs, overran the district and 
settled here. They are described as a peace-loving 
folk, having the organisation, somewhat as it is to-day 
in Russia, of the family, and groups of families, ruled 
by a Starosta ; these again grouped into a community 
under a Zupan ; and these communities had watch- 
towers and fortresses and earthworks into which the 
people fled for refuge in war time. They had their 
own gods of which Morena, the god of winter and 
death, was one of the chief, and they believed in 
eternal life. 

The neighbours of this Slavic folk were the 
Bajuvaren or Bavarians, also heathen until 696. 
Strife ensuing between the Avars and the Slavonians 
the latter called in the Bavarian Duke Tassilo to their 
aid, and later on, he going against the Franks, was 

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Austria 

crushed by Charlemagne, and then it came about that 
the Germans occupied the land ; and as all unoccupied 
land belonged to the Crown, and the Slavs only thinly 
populated the territory, it was divided amongst nobles 
and churches, and monasteries, and the Slavs were 
utilised as workers on the land. Many Celtic, and 
still more Slavic names are left in the district, and the 
tenacity of the Slavs for their ancient customs and 
their picturesque costumes will be seen in many parts 
of Austria. This slight sketch of the peopling of the 
Steiermark is fairly illustrative, with slight variations, 
of the peopling of the whole of Austria. 

But Graz is more German, therefore one sees but 
little costume in the city. 

The central point in this city of nearly 200,000 
inhabitants is the Hauptplatz, with its busy market, 
town hall, monument and fountains representing the 
four great rivers of the Steirmark — the Mur, Drave, 
Save, and Enns. But the most interesting point for 
the traveller is the old courtyard of the Landhaus, 
which is in the Italian renaissance style, with a triple 
story of arcades, arches, and stairways. On the 
west side is the famous well, a masterpiece of open 
metal work, dating about 1590. The diet hall and the 
wine cellar are worth visiting, but the strangest and 
unique building that should draw every lover of 
history to Graz is a massive building on the south 
side of this courtyard. A ring at the bell will bring 
the custodian, who is a lover of the marvellous collec- 
tion entrusted to his care. Here in this Zeughaus or 
Arsenal is the most remarkable collection, or rather 
armoury, of mediaeval weapons the world has to 
show. 

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Styria (The Steiermark) and Graz 

This is not a show lot of beautiful pieces of armour 
and weapons as at Dresden, Madrid, Berlin and else- 
where, but a real armoury of four wide floors all 
stocked with mediaeval armour, waiting, waiting, 
for a phantom army to come and be harnessed and 
armed. Here are 28,000 weapons ; 14,000 men could 
be armed. Here are 2500 suits of plate-armour 
besides those in chain. Every possible type of 
offensive and defensive weapon is here, and many 
ingenious devices for crippling and maiming the 
enemy. It is notable that there are no suits of 
armour for men 6 feet in height, nor for big men ; 
but as the custodian lovingly handled weapons 
and armour, he proved they must have been very 
muscular men to wield these weapons and bear 
this armour. To wander through these solid, dim 
floors, with all this preparation for a bygone war, 
that comes not again, is to experience a most strange 
sensation ; and many of the pieces are very beautiful 
works of art, and others are devilish for their cruel 
ingenuity. 1 

Another most remarkable collection is that in the 
Kunstgewerbe (art trade) Museum. 

This is housed in a fine, spacious building finished in 
1895, near the old Joannuem Museum that holds the 
antique, geological, and botanical collections. 

One often hears statements upon Austria founded 
upon trivial knowledge, or upon visits paid years ago. 
The development of every town and district in Austria 
has been tremendous during the last two decades, and 
this museum is an example of this great work. Here 

1 See article in the Morning Post, "The Armoury at Graz," August 
24th, 1<J10, by J. B. 

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Austria 

are indeed historical and folk museums, filled with 
artistic relics of past ages, arranged with every care and 
foresight, dwelling-rooms of the district at various 
periods, tools, personal ornaments, glass, musical in- 
struments, dresses, iron work, porcelain ; and the 
exhibits are so hung that they can easily be taken into 
the technical schools for study, reproduction, or to 
incite invention or design. There is a whole suite 
of rooms, illustrating the life of the Steiermark with 
figures in costume. 

• The technical school is a magnificent building with 
four faculties, and most elaborate and important 
arrangements and apparatus for chemistry, engineer- 
ing, building. The university is also a very handsome 
building with an anatomical and physiological annex, 
and a physical institute adjoining, linked with a 
pretty garden and an observatory, and an excellent 
library and botanical garden ; there are about 2000 
students studying here. As far back as 1841 the 
technical school of the Johanneum was said to be one 
of the three schools in Austria, and Graz also had her 
agriculture school and model farm and polytechnic 
association. 

A very pleasant ending to a visit to Graz is to cross 
the rushing Mur from the west part of the town by 
the old bridge, to wind up through the narrow and 
busy streets, passing the cathedral, that in spite of 
restoration is worth a halt, and then to work up 
through the lovely Stadtpark, with its beautiful 
flowers, shady trees, and often excellent music (a 
Bosnian regiment was playing once when we fingered 
here), then to climb the steep Schlossberg, and visit 
the old clock tower and the Turkish Wells, and once 

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Styria (The Steiermark) and Graz 

more we can look out over the wonderful view, 
down over the picturesque town, and try to recall 
all the historic reminiscences Graz has brought to 
mind. 

On quitting Graz we turned southward, through the 
Steiermark, and sometimes when the river is in flood 
the valley is widely flooded. There are many small 
spots of interest, but Marburg on the Drave makes a 
useful halting-place, if only to study the excellent and 
painstaking methods of fruit culture, and the school 
established for teaching this. 

• All through Southern, and, in fact, all over Austria 
great care has to be taken to note which race peoples 
the district in order not to offend susceptibilities ; in 
Graz, as we have seen, it was German that was pre- 
dominant, and therefore one would be careful not to 
use the Slav salutations ; but as we run southwards 
we come into a Slav district, and at Cilli we are amidst 
a Wendish population, one of these towns whose 
name dates back to the Celtic Roman period. This 
makes a pleasant halting spot, a bright town ; the old 
square towers in the Schlossberg form a picturesque 
bit in the landscape, and the church bells have a 
glorious tone. To those studying Roman life the 
museum is well worth an hour amongst its local 
finds. 

The little river Sann adds to the beauty of the 
scenery, that is very diversified with high hills and 
rocky defiles, ruins of castles, pretty villages, and 
small towns. At Romerbad the station is remarkably 
pretty, and, as the name implies, here are curative baths 
known to the Romans, and the country around, both 
in forest, pastoral, and rock scenery, is full of pleasant 

123 



Austria 

charm. But we are approaching the frontier of 
Styria, that is bounded by the Save which flows 
into the Sann, and must quit this interesting mark 
that has played no mean part in the history of 
Austria. 



124 



CHAPTER XIV 

CARNIOLA (KRAIN) — LJUBLJANA (LAIBACH) 

THE scenery as we enter Carniola, or Krain, 
along the banks of the Save, is full of beauty, 
and just a mile or two before crossing the 
frontier at Trifail we have great cliffs that 
are really open coal quarries ; and at Sagor, the 
frontier town, are grand hills and cliffs rising sheer 
400 to 800 feet in height. We are not far from 
Hungary, and by following the Save eastwards Agram 
is quickly reached ; but we journey on, along its banks 
to the westward, emerging from the ravines, and soon 
get a fine view of the Julian Alps that promise plenty 
of work for the rock and mountain climber, and glorious 
scenery for the lover of nature. 

The capital of the province, Ljubljana, or Laibach, 
forms an excellent centre for exploring the district, 
and is a most interesting and pleasant place to sojourn 
in. Railways branch off to that most fascinating 
district of Alpine heights and idyllic lakes, Veldes and 
Wochein Feistritz, and into Gorizia ; southward into 
Istria and on to Triest and the Adriatic; and 
eastwards to Hungary. Both history and modern 
development tend to hold the traveller for some days 
in the capital of Carniola, or Krain as the Germans 
call this Duchy ; and in the near neighbourhood we 
can study the peasant life in this homeland of Austria. 
If in the Steiermark Germans predominate, here in 

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Austria 

Carniola the Slav is in the ascendant, there being over 
500,000 Slowenisch to about 28,000 Germans, and 
patriotism and race devotion is shown in the eagerness 
of the people to be abreast with all developments. 
With the military garrison there are about 50,000 
inhabitants in the capital, and the diet house for the 
local Parliament is a handsome building, with club 
and reading rooms for the members, who are elected by 
four classes of voters : the rich domain holders, the 
towns, the peasants, and the general voter. The 
Justice Palace, or Law Courts, is also a fine building, 
and around it are pleasant gardens and lakes and 
avenues of chestnut trees. 

The Government House is another handsome 
building, the residence of the Stadthalter ; and in 
passing from this through the poorer part of the town, 
that is well kept and clean, one sees a part of the old 
Roman walls. The view from the south embraces the 
pleasant shady avenues and gardens, the river from 
which the town is named, and above all rises the great 
mass of the castle, upon its dominating tree- covered 
hill, whilst beyond are the green picturesque hills. 

The town has been greatly developed of late ; one 
passes through the old Ghetto, but no Jews are there 
now. The old town hall is a picturesque building 
with balconies and arches, but the building that will 
hold the visitor, wherein he can study the history of 
this district and the folklore of the people, is the 
Rudolphinum, where the museum of the province is 
installed. 

Here the life of the district can be gleaned from 
the well-arranged exhibits, and it was interesting on 
one occasion when there to see a school of lads, some 

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Carniola( K rain)— Ljubljana( Laibach ) 

without shoes, but decidedly clean, others well dressed, 
all studying the life and history of their homeland. 

The finds go back to the earliest lake-dwellers and 
Neolithic times, including some remarkable pottery 
with encrusted ornamentation, etc. ; thence to the 
Bronze epoch, and a very rich collection of the Iron 
period, that a local writer gives here as 900-400 B.C. 
Belonging to the later Iron or Celtic epoch are richly 
decorated swords, and a beautiful helmet collar, with 
cheek pieces, upon which birds are chiselled. The 
collection of the Roman period is also very rich, 
especially in glass, and what is perhaps yet more 
interesting, are the finds of the folk migration period 
and the first Slavic settlers. 

The history is carried on to later days, when the 
struggle with the Moslem was desperate, and a flag 
of 1593 recalls this epoch in their history. 

Here, as elsewhere in Austria, the life of the folk 
of to-day and yesterday is illustrated by models and 
actual furniture, and household utensils of their homes, 
and figures in the bright costumes. We went out on 
the balcony of the museum, and looked out over the 
town. As we had entered the city on this occasion, on 
the eve of Corpus Christi, many peasants were flocking 
in for the procession, and we noted the tone of colour 
of many was a quiet grey, with a whitish head-dress, 
but on the morrow we were to see all the more 
brilliant-coloured dress of Upper Carniola, and these 
dresses and the whole home-life of the folk is illus- 
trated in the museum. 

Before climbing up to the castle we made an 
excursion with the learned curator of the museum 
out to the village of Roznik, and in chatting with the 

127 



Austria 

peasants learnt that the small-holders worked about 
5 acres of ground, and that the pay for workers in 
harvest time was 4 Kronen a day, in winter 2 to 3 
Kronen, but most of the hands engaged in this work 
were women. 

In the factories the girls earned 1.50 to 3 Kroner, 
the men 3 to 5, really less than on the fields, because 
they were also insured against sickness. From this 
village we went on to St Veit, where we found them 
busy sweeping the roads and decorating with young 
trees and flags for Corpus Christi. 

We had a chat in the house of a young carpenter, 
who was also a small-holder of about 1| acres. A 
smart, bright young fellow, full of life and keenness in 
his work with wood, and in his fowls and pigs, and in 
his garden. We went into his workshops ; the 
technical schools had made him love and know his 
work. In his kitchen all was clean. A white towel 
was hung up for drying hands. The cooking utensils 
were of bright metal, well polished ; there was a cake- 
mould amongst them. In the sleeping-room for the 
children all was clean and airy, and a big room, with 
two beds in it, served as sitting-room, the beds 
having tidy, pretty coverlets over them. Here 
were flowers on a table, and flowers were wreathed 
over a pier-glass and a crucifix. Everything was 
absolutely sweet and pure. 

We next visited a well-to-do farmer's house, who 
farmed 60 to 70 acres. He cultivated hops and corn, 
and kept cows. We went into his sitting-room and 
kitchen and three bedrooms, all clean and orderly. 
He was just putting up a new hop-oven with expensive 
screen methods, and an excellent and unusual arrange- 

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Carniola(Krain) — Ljubljana(Laibach) 

ment was his smoke chamber above the kitchen, that 
utilised all the smoke for drying meats, etc. From 
the farmer we got the prices of food for the towns, and 
found that it averaged : bread, 1 Jd. per lb ; potatoes, 
Jd. per lb. ; meat, 6d. to Is. per lb. At first he was 
very reticent and reserved, but at last became very 
friendly, and his wife came and offered us a slice of 
their excellent brown bread, which, with a Slav, is a 
mark of friendship. 

We were fortunate to have introductions to a 
Landrath, a Mr Lindtner, who was full of information, 
and most kindly courteous in his assistance, and 
with him we were enabled to see the Corpus Christi 
procession from the balcony of the Parliament 
buildings. 

The troops were paraded, all wearing oak leaves in 
their hats, a tribute to spring ; and as the procession 
passed beneath us it was a pretty and impressive 
spectacle. All the artistic and patriotic societies 
took part. The national white head-dress of the 
women was prominent, and as the first blessing was 
pronounced the cannon roared out from the great 
castle that was above us, and the bells clanged forth, 
and the people lit candles in their windows to greet 
the procession as it passed. Women in the National 
costume, bands of music, the Philharmonic Society, 
Marias tift Society ; little children all in white, bearing 
candles and flowers ; officials of the town, monks, 
and, last of all, the bishop under a gold canopy 
in his rich vestments, and priests in gold and 
white. When the bishop halted to bless the troops, 
with the people in their brilliant colours all grouped 
around, the scene was full of beauty, and recalled 
i 129 



Austria 

the fierce history through which the people have 
passed. 

The study of life here in the great market-place, 
and in the churches gives many tokens of the life of 
the people ; and a climb up the tree-clad height to the 
great fortress above, affords in either a morning or 
evening light a wide and beautiful prospect of the town 
and all the country around. The castle buildings, 
now used as barracks, are still very imposing, with 
great round towers and overhanging bartizans, and 
the views from the platform are superb. To the 
north-west are the big range of hills, and the Alps 
with the famous Triglav. To the west is the rich 
plain land intersected by rivers. In descending from 
the height we saw the pretty house of General 
Radetzky, the General of the Italian wars, and the 
walk down through the shady avenues with the birds 
singing in the bushes gave a delightful finish to the 
visit to this pleasant town that suffered so terribly 
in the awful earthquake of 1895. It was here that 
the Congress was held in 1821. That the people of 
Laibach are very alive to modern developments was 
evidenced in the handsome, well-arranged " Slavo- 
nitz " newspaper office, where everything was up to 
date, with a good library, each editor having his own 
room. 

Carniola, like Styria, has a history that carries one 
far back into the dim, misty ages of the beginning 
of the human race. The rich plain we looked down 
upon from the great castle height was once a great 
lake, and as we have seen in the museum, rich finds 
have been made of these beginnings of history. 
Legend says Jason and the Argonauts passed here on 

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Carniola(Krain) — Ljubljana(Laibach) 

the way from Colchis in distant Circassia ; and of the 
occupation of the Celts there is ample and valuable 
evidence in the museum. After the Celts came the 
Romans, laying their high roads, and with more 
perfect organisation, and the rich finds of gold and 
silver objects prove, that this was a rich province 
under Roman rule. 

In the fifth and sixth centuries the West Goths 
under Alaric, the East Goths under Theodore, and 
the Longobards under Alboin, destroyed much of this 
Roman civilisation, and the Huns led by Attila con- 
tinued the work. 

In the sixth century the Slavs appeared, and with 
them the Avars, and the history of this district 
developed as we have described the history of the 
Styrians, until in 1335 the Habsburgers came into 
power. Being near the Turkish border the district 
suffered heavily in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 
from Moslem invasion, and Laibach was attacked 
but never taken. 



131 



CHAPTER XV 

CARNIOLA, WOCHEIN FEISTRITZ, VELDES, AND 
ADELSBERG 

BEFORE proceeding on the southern route 
through Carniola to the vast caverns of 
Adelsburg we must make a north-western 
excursion to the district that Sir Humphry 
Davy so loved, and often visited in the eighteenth 
century. 

This district can also be reached by the Tauern 
route to or from Triest, but it may be included in the 
chapter on Carniola, as here may be studied amidst 
scenes of remarkable beauty the Fauna and Flora of 
Carniola, and the sportsman, and fisherman, and 
Alpinist will have in this province wide scope for their 
pet pleasures. 

It was in rather a dramatic fashion that I first 
learned that this rich corner of Europe was well known 
to a famous Englishman in the eighteenth century. 
I had arranged a journey for a party of British 
writers and journalists through Bosnia, and on our 
return when we arrived in Carniola, a well- printed 
and well-illustrated newspaper was handed to us in 
English and German, with a hearty welcome to the 
English guests ; and to our astonishment more than 
one good portrait of Sir Humphry Davy. 

In the welcome it was stated that the English were 
the " pathfinders," the pioneers, of the foreigners who 

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Carniola, Wochein Feistritz 

since have visited this country, and continued : " One 
of the most important English naturalists, Sir 
Humphry Davy, made our country known to the 
world, as J. Gilbert, who followed the traces of the 
famous Briton in 1861-62 and 1863,, writes in his 
highly interesting book of travels. He (Humphry 
Davy), the greatest ornament of the most fashionable 
London Society, the representative of European fame, 
had to come to the distant country of Carniola in 
order to find a place " where a man can rejoice in his 
life." And then followed a lengthy and learned 
article upon the early English travellers who had 
studied Carniola, and especially upon those sent by 
the Royal Society as far back as 1648 and 1672, when 
Dr Edward Brown made a long stay here. It was in 
1818 that Humphry Davy first visited the district ; 
and then again in 1827, staying at Laibach and in 
the district for a month, returning again in August ; 
and then, being very ill in England in March 1828, with 
young Dr Tobin started on a tour and arrived in 
Laibach on May 4th, putting up at the Inn Detela, 
which stood where now stands the Union Hotel, where 
we had halted in Laibach. Davy remained in the 
district until October, then went on to Triest for a few 
days, and returned again ; hunting, fishing and geo- 
logising as before, and exploring until the 30th 
October. 

One of his notes on the district runs thus : "I have 
again and again visited Laibach, and again and again 
learned much that is new and beautiful, and wonder- 
ful, in the district. The valley of the Save and its 
waterfalls and lakes enticed me the most ; I know 
nothing in Europe more gloriously beautiful."' 

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Austria 

It was strange that this document dealing with Sir 
Humphry Davy's rapture at the scenes we were 
visiting, should fall into my hands, for, but just 
before leaving England, I had been working to have 
a plaque placed on the house where Davy began his 
scientific work in Clifton, at the home of Dr Beddoes, 
and Signor Marconi had unveiled that plaque, a 
fact that deeply interested our Carniola hosts when 
I told them of the incident. The journal gave a most 
interesting account of succeeding English savants, 
explorers, etc., especially of Gilbert and Churchill 
of the Geological Society, and also a detailed account 
of the district, from which we must cull items upon the 
various points of interest. 

Davy's raptures over the Wochein Lake and 
waterfall one can quickly understand when walking 
along the shores of that idyllic scene. Where the 
river runs into the lake it is of that strange, lovely 
turquoise hue so rare, and yet so often seen in this 
district, whilst the lake is of a dark green tone. A 
steep scramble and climb leads us up over the lake 
to the Savica Falls. A little wooden bench is here, 
just as there was when Sir Humphry Davy came, 
day after day, to revel in the scene. 

And truly a wondrous and wild scene it is. The 
mighty fall leaping 250 feet, from between the bare 
grey rocks that climb some 1800 feet above, down 
into a turquoise pool ; and then a little fall spending 
itself in cascades, these forming into a rushing torrent. 
A rainbow hovered over the pool, coming and vanish- 
ing as the light played upon it from behind the fleecy 
clouds. 

The eternal roar, and thunder, and hiss of the 

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Carniola, Wochein Feistritz 

waters made titanic music for the ear, and on looking 
back through the deep forest, a glimpse of a lovely- 
lake was had, with the light falling upon it. Then 
again we looked up at the fleecy-white foaming tur- 
quoise-hued fall, and thought that this was the Save, 
that great river that flowed into the Danube. We 
are here, as it were, at the foot of the famous mountain, 
the giant of the district, the triple peaked Triglav, 
rising above the seven Triglav lakes to the height of 
9400 feet. 

The local Alpinists are a jovial and musical company 
with a pleasant wit, and I was astonished to receive 
at a dinner at Veldes an important document with 
many seals, endorsed in English, " In the service of 
its Majesty, c The Triglav.' " The document was 
signed " Rex Triglavenses I.," and conferred upon me 
the " insignia of an honorary citizen and Knight of 
the Triglav Kingdom." The insignia was a handsome 
badge, enamelled in the local colours of red, yellow, 
green, and blue, with an edelweiss in white in the 
centre, and the legend " Reg Terg-lovense " around 
it. I found " his Majesty " was really Professor Belar 
who had climbed the mountain twenty-five times. 

We had some glorious music on this evening, from 
a choir of peasants in pretty and brilliant costume, 
who came from the Rotwein Klamm, and sang their 
Slav part songs with vivid fervour and expressive 
intonation ; and also from the " Glasbene Matice " a 
men's choir from Laibach, who also sang Slav part 
songs superbly. The Slav greeting in this district is 
" Zivio " pronounced Jee, vio ; it is equivalent to 
the Bohemian Na Zdar, but, of course, this should not 
be used in a German locality, as also it is best not to 

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Austria 

use in a Slav district, " Hoch," or " Leb wohl," or 
" Auf Wiedersehen." 

The road from Feistritz to Veldes is full of enchant- 
ing charm, and from it the lake is looked down upon, 
lying like a jewel set in pearls of snow peaks. Here 
some of the rushing streams are of delicate emerald 
green, and the grey peaks rise up into the blue heavens, 
until they are snow and cloud wreathed. 

At Veldes we drove to the Louisenbad, and on the 
balcony sat and wrote, and revelled in the soft 
beauteous scene of castle and lake and little island of 
St Maria im See. 1 

In spring the slopes of these mountains we have 
looked out upon are a field of superb colour of myriads 
of flowers, and on the lake side are baths of hot and 
cold springs, or for the summer there are lake 
swimming baths, and rowing and shooting and fish- 
ing can be enjoyed ; and for the lover of early folk- 
lore, stories of heathen Celtic gods, and of mediaeval 
legends ; and peasant customs that recall both stories 
and legends and primitive faiths. 

We shall visit this district again in passing up from 
Triest to Carinthia, the adjoining homeland ; but we 
may give the sportsman and botanist a short hint of 
the pleasure to be had in this nature-favoured spot 
that Humphry Davy loved so well. 

In Carniola, so famous for its Alpine beauty, the 
botanist will indeed find a paradise. In Austria itself, 
just as one may find every type of landscape scenery, 
so also the flora is of infinite variety ; and the fauna 

1 The Weissenfels lakes that are on the frontier of Carniola- 
Carinthia are referred to in the latter section in an excursion from 
Villach. 

I36 



Carniola, Wochein Feistritz 

is of especial interest ; neither the naturalist, the 
sportsman, the geologist, nor the fisherman need 
depart empty-handed. 

The flora is particularly varied, for here we shall 
find both Alpine flowers and those too that gladden 
the shores of the Mediterranean. Its inhabitants 
claim that in this respect Carniola is the most 
interesting country in Europe. 

Amongst the rarer plants, we might mention 
Festuca aurea (only found on the Vremscica), as also 
Festuca carniolica (upon Nanos and in the valley 
Rasatal), Fritillaria tenella (at Gaberk), Fritillaria 
meleagris (at Laibach, etc.), and the scarce Pceonia 
corallina (upon Nanos and Baba), Delphinium 
hybridum (at Vrem), Aconitum albicans (Woch- 
einer Alps), Ranunculus Thora (at Kumberg), Arabis 
scopoliana (on the Schneeberg and also at Nanos), 
Potentilla carniolica, Potentilla nitida (in various 
localities), two rare varieties of Trijolium-noricum 
and panonicum, the attractive Geraneum argenteum 
(on the Crna prst and Lisec), Euphorbia lucida and 
Euphorbia nicceensis (Zirknitzer See and at Vrem re- 
spectively) ; and the following varieties of Viola 
may be found — uliginosa, Zoisii, pinnata, cornuta. 
Among the Gentians, Gentiana Frbhlichii is not un- 
common, as also Gentiana triglavensis ; and amongst 
others we might mention are Valeriana supina, 
Scabiosa graminifolia, as also silenifolia ; Chrysan- 
themum macrophyllum ; Centaurea heleniifolia, 
Echinops ritro and Crepis grandiflora. 

The animal world of Carniola is very varied, as 
varied as the variety of the levels of the country. The 
great Alpine ranges of the Julian, Karawanken, and 

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Austria 

other mountain heights, the lower pine forest hills, 
and the level grassy plains, give a vast variety to the 
fauna of the district. 

On the Julian Alps are the chamois and roebuck ; 
on the Karawanken the ibex, or horned goat ; eagles 
float over the lower mountain heights, and in the 
forests are blackcock, heathcock, ptarmigan and 
grouse ; and in the deep forests wolves and bears are 
yet to be met with. Hares are plentiful, and wild 
cats not scarce, and wild geese and ducks are in the 
lower moors and woods. 

The fisherman can have good sport in lake and 
stream with the various types of excellent trout, 
carp, pike, and a fish known as wells, the sheath fish ; 
and as we shall see at Adelsberg, for the curious and 
specialist, the underworld of Carniola has its own 
peculiar fauna, and even flora, that accommodate 
themselves to the utter darkness of the numerous 
caverns. 

To reach Adelsberg from Veldes we must travel 
back again to Laibach through Radmannsdorf and 
Krainburg, both pretty spots for a halt, the latter 
town being an excellent centre for mountain excursions. 
We follow along the Save, that valley that a hundred 
years ago Humphry Davy described as the most 
beautiful in Europe, and yet to-day, how very few 
English-speaking travellers know its beauty. We 
shall be again in the near neighbourhood of all this 
nature glory, when travelling up from the brilliant 
sunshine of Dalmatia, and halt to explore Gorizia, and 
all the exquisite beauty of Carinthia, two territories 
that border on Carniola. 

In leaving Laibach to journey due south, we are 

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Veldes and Adelsberg 

at once in a district full of strange problems for the 
naturalist. We cross the vast moor or " Moss " that 
has yielded so much of the life of the lake dwellers, and 
run along the river which later on plays such tricks 
of appearing and disappearing, like the rivers in the 
Tatra and in Yorkshire, and the Ombla that we shall 
see in Dalmatia. We halt at the pleasant little town 
of Adelsberg, where, although it is only a place of a 
couple of thousand inhabitants, yet the express 
trains stop, for the marvellous stalactite caverns bring 
about 50,000 people here annually, and the number 
would be quintupled did the world know what is to be 
seen in the netherworld of this region. 

Before visiting the vast caverns, it is as well to 
visit one of the inns in the town for refreshment ; for 
the tramp through the underworld lasts two to three 
or more hours, and is tiring because of the exciting 
interest aroused. 

The little church in the town is worth a visit, 
especially if one sees as I once saw, a crowd of Slav 
children who had come to visit the caverns, all in 
their bright colours, here kneeling at their prayers 
before starting homeward. 

The entrance to the caverns is a little way from 
the town, up a fine avenue of chestnuts, with lovely 
meadows below, through which runs the little river 
Poik that we met at Laibach under the name of the 
Upper Laibach. Then one passes up between grey 
rocks, and pines, soon coming to the arched gate 
of the cavern entrance. No torches are needed now, 
as all is lit up by electricity, and even a little railway 
is laid for the long stretches in the caverns for the 
weakly traveller. These things detract somewhat 

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Austria 

from the mysterious weird grimness, and the vast 
gloom of the caverns, but the light shews us marvels 
of beauty the torches could never reveal. 

There are 20 kilometres of caverns (12 miles). 
Vast halls, long mighty corridors, intricate mazes, and 
beauteous niches on either hand as one enters and 
passes up the long tunnel, and then soon, far beneath, 
we can hear Poik rushing onward in its black depths. 
One longs to halt, but we are told this is nothing, and 
so it proves when the vast spacious Gothic halls are 
entered. The pure, lovely, colossal stalactites and 
stalagmites assume all types of form. The vast 
ballroom has great pendants of stalactites, and here, 
on Whit Monday and August the 15th, a peasants' 
dance is held, and 10,000 people throng the caverns. 
But it is best, at least at first, to be nearly alone ; 
the awe and wonder is intense. At one place is the 
tower of Pisa, at another an organ, and fantastic 
pillars like palms. In the mausoleum are great 
sarcophagi. The entry into the Francis Joseph's 
Hall is very striking, and from here to the Calvary is a 
succession of wonders. Terrific ! imposing ! are the 
exclamations that come to the lips. In one place the 
masses glitter as with rain-drops. Some of the pillars 
and domes are as set with brilliants. The colours vary 
from purest white to soft deep sepia. On the 
Belvedere one looks down on the three lakes of 
Tarturus, and as one enters the Loible pass a giant 
lion guards the path. 

Once when we were in these vast, sombre, dark 
yet glittering halls, a weird, strange, soft cry came 
through the night beyond us, echoing, and, as it were, 
wailing, pleading amidst the pillars and arches. It 

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Veldes and Adelsberg 

was some children singing in a far-distant part of 
this netherworld. On this occasion I was furnished 
with much information by Mr Perko, the Secretary of 
the Government Commission that rules the caverns, 
and he showed me the strange string-like weed, that 
grows in this world of night, and the blind eel-like 
fish that live here. Some of the halls are 130 feet in 
height and nearly 200 feet in length ; and great 
stretches containing new wonders not yet shown 
to the public, are being pierced through. It is a 
thousand Cheddars in one, and it is more wonderful 
than the great caverns of Han in Belgium. In one 
place was a fallen pillar, very like the famous pillar 
at the temple of Karnac. The age of an old twin 
column was given as 190,000 years. Perhaps the most 
beautiful and wondrous point is to stand on the top 
of the Hill of Calvary with its crucifix, and hundreds 
of pillars and pinnacles, and intricate mazes all around 
one. Other wonders are in dark caverns, where fight 
suddenly reveals the most delicate beauty of form and 
colour. But we must leave this netherworld and 
journey southward, and soon cross the frontier of 
lovely Carniola, and enter the Kiistenland, or coast 
land, and the province of Istria. 



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CHAPTER XVI 

TRIEST AND ISTRIA 

AUSTRIA is pre-eminently the land of 
dramatic surprises, and, after all the 
beauties of Carniola and the mysteries of 
Adelsberg, we cross, in descending to the 
Adriatic coast, that most barren yet ruggedly beautiful 
district of the Karst mountains. 

It is an enlarged Dartmoor, with a wholly different 
scheme of colour. Here the rock is of light grey, with 
rich deep purple heather, and the rushing streams are 
of that wonderful turquoise blue I know of in no other 
district. It is said that all this barren rocky waste 
was richly afforested in Roman days, and that the 
Romans destroyed the forests to build their galleys. 
But Austria's schemes for education and agriculture 
and forestry are again making this wild lime stone 
region of bare rock, fresh and green with foliage, and 
the spines of larch and pine. One passes miles of 
young trees making good headway, and soon this 
district that for 2000 years has been a desolate waste, 
will be a profit -yielding forest-land. 

We soon come to Opcina, which has quite lately been 
made a health-resort suburb of Triest. A mountain 
resort with the pure air of the altitude of 13 to 
1500 feet, including sea bathing ! An impossibility 
it sounds, but a lift connects Opcina with the sea level 
of Triest, so that one can live up here amidst pines, and 

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Triest and I stria 

rocks, and heather, and descend for a morning's sea 
plunge to the level of palms and roses. The look-out 
over the Adriatic, lying soft and blue in the sunlight 
along the indented shore, will charm the traveller, who 
gets thus his first glimpse of Adria's sea ; and land- 
ward the view is very varied, with the grey scarps 
of the Karst leading up to the nearly bare uplands ; 
but the villages on the lower slopes are in rich vegeta- 
tion of vines, and chestnuts, and pasturage. There 
are good hotels, and pensions, and bathing establish- 
ments on this height, some linked with the sea-baths 
at the foot of the mountains. The ordinary rail takes 
a long time to get down to Triest, as it dives into 
tunnels, and winds and twists down the mountain 
side, giving glimpses of the sea, and the town of Triest 
and its harbour spread far below. 

The city of Triest has a very modern appearance, 
and at first sight there seems to be little to detain the 
traveller, but the monuments that are left are of 
great interest, and excursions may be made by water 
to points of great beauty. I first entered Triest by 
water on returning from Greece in 1886, by the Florio 
Rubatino line of steamers, and as we entered the 
harbour the low sloping, green lands and ridges of the 
hills in the distance, and dotted houses, told of more 
cultivation than on the Grecian hills. The town 
itself was all varied with green from the open tree- 
shaded spaces, and, as it was in the spring, the chest- 
nuts and Judas trees were in flower. 

To-day the fine buildings at the quay of the 
Austrian Lloyd's palatial offices, and opposite the 
palace of Prince Hohenlohe, the Stadtholder of the 
province of Triest, with the town hall, enclose a hand- 

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Austria 

some square, the harbour and busy shipping forming 
the front. The peculiarity of the clocks always 
striking the hour twice, had worried me, because one 
could get no satisfactory explanation of these re- 
dundant strikings, but Prince Hohenlohe, upon my 
putting the question to him, said it was because so 
often people did not hear the first striking ; but 
another reason given was that the clock of St Mark's 
strikes twice, and Triest likes to copy Venetian 
customs. 

There are scenes in Triest, on the canal, that vividly 
recall Venice, with her narrow waters, her rich-toned 
sails, and public buildings. But Venice has not the 
hills to climb that Triest can give you, neither has it 
the terrific Bora that sweeps down off the Karst 
mountains, that seem to shelter the city, and tears 
great ships from their moorings, and will even lift 
people bodily and hurl them into the harbour. The 
city has nearly doubled its population during these 
last twenty years, and now numbers considerably 
over 200,000 inhabitants, largely an Italian-speaking 
people. 

Triest and its district has a population of Italians, 
and Slovaks, with a small proportion of Germans, and 
a sprinkling of Servian or Croats and Slavs, but 
Italian is the language mostly used, although German 
is understood in all the public offices and large business 
premises. 

There are winding routes for carriages through 
streets and piazzas named after famous writers, such 
as Silvia Pellico, Goldoni, that lead up to the upper 
old town and the castle and cathedral, but for the 
pedestrian the most interesting way is to climb by 

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Triest and I stria 

" The Steps of the Giants," that give occasion for 
frequent halts to look down on the city below and 
study the people who clamber up and down these 
steps, but it is a hot climb on a warm day. 

Arrived at the summit, from the embattled plat- 
form near the cathedral, a great view repays the 
climber. Far over the brown-roofed houses of the 
whole city, with the dark smoke rising from the ship- 
building yards, out to the Mole and lighthouse, and 
far out to the open Mediterranean beyond. The bay 
is sheltered from the east and north by the dark hills 
and jutting headlands. Then when one has drunk 
in the view one can turn aside and enter the cathedral, 
some parts of which have stood since the days of 
Rome's dominance. In the tower, at the entrance, 
may be seen a pillar of the Roman Temple that stood 
upon this site ; and in the Lapidarium, a tree- shaded 
space with a museum near by, some most beautiful 
relics of Roman sculpture and architecture, and also 
a fine monument to Winckelmann, who was killed 
here in 1768. The interior of the cathedral is at first 
a great puzzle to the archaeologist. It is really two 
early churches of the fifth and sixth centuries, linked 
by a fourteenth-century nave. The inlaid marbles 
and mosaics are of exceptional value. The cathedral 
is dedicated to St Giusto, our St Just, and the frescoes 
illustrating his life are remarkable. The church is 
unfortunately very dark, and it requires good eyesight 
to be able to examine the really interesting details of 
this strange and impressive building. 

To obtain even a wider view of the landscape 
around, if permission is obtained, the castle height can 
be climbed, and the grey ridges of the Karst mountains 

K 145 



Austria 

can be seen, as well as the distant Alps. It is hoped 
in Triest that even the dreaded Bora will be tamed, 
as the afforestation of the Karst goes on ; and cer- 
tainly the fresh vigour of the young trees we saw 
in some of the rocky districts promised thorough 
success to this bold movement, that should be a 
tremendous lesson to some British, or especially Irish, 
grumblers at home difficulties of cultivation, because 
of indifferent soil. 

Triest, like Pilsen, is noted for its beer, for here is 
located the great brewery of Dreher, producing yearly 
something like a million and a half hectolitres of the 
well-known light beer. 

It is a most interesting study to stroll along the 
harbour and quays of Triest, and watch the arrival 
of the Ocean liners, or still more, the small local 
steamers from the near ports and islands of the 
Adriatic ; and numerous are the excursions one can 
arrange. In the town there are pleasant walks in the 
Giardino Publico, where the band plays, and the 
people are in light-hearted crowds, all orderly, but 
jovial. One sees but little quaint costume ; now and 
then a grey-coloured head-dress, but most of the girls 
are bareheaded. Another popular place is the Bos- 
chetto, a lovely wooded hill with oaks, ash, and many 
trees, with shady little paths and water-courses, and 
peeps down to the city below and the hills beyond. 
Here, in the groves in spring, one can hear the music 
and laughter of the crowds, and in the retired paths 
the song of the nightingales. 

Of the numerous excursions near Triest the one 
that all take is to Miramar that lies just across the bay. 
The pleasant way to reach this is by boat ; one can get 

i^6 



Triest and I stria 

there by rail or tramway, but the approach to this 
stately chateau and its beautiful gardens by water 
is by far the most impressive. On landing at the 
marble steps we ascend into the beautiful gardens, 
with their bowers and seats in shady avenues look- 
ing out on to glorious flowers. Perhaps between tall 
dark cypress trees, on the blue waters of the bay there 
floats a tiny boat with deep orange sails, under the 
paler blue of the sky. All is beauty, colour, and soft, 
contented peace ; and then one looks away to the 
white marble palace, and remembers that it was the 
home of Maximilian and his wife — he, executed in 
Mexico, and she lingering on in Laachen as a demented 
widow. The rooms within the castle are very lovely 
and hold many art treasures ; but their greatest 
beauty is the superb views from the windows upon 
the beauteous bay, and the charm of landscape around 
it. A day that gives very much to remember is one 
spent in a trip to Capo d'Istria. A call at the offices 
of the Austrian Lloyd's will secure much useful 
information upon the possibilities of short or long 
tours on the Adriatic, and also interesting local 
booklets that give valuable notes. 

Capo d'Istria can be reached in various ways ; its 
name implies it is a headland of Istria, formerly an 
island, and as one sails around the great point the 
whole bay opens out, and soon a great building, that 
we were told was the Carceria, is seen. 

The little town is very quiet now, but on entering 
the Piazza one halts almost with a shock of surprise. 
Here is a miniature Venice. The Campanile, the Lion 
of St Mark, and farther on the great cathedral, and 
the Palazzo communale, with its Venetian windows, 

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Austria 

and estrade for public announcements. A veritable 
bit of Venice. 

Once when visiting here, II Brolo, the three old 
churches and a monastery, with the rich old cloisters 
had been utilised for an Istrian exhibition, and some 
remarkable historic pictures and relics of the province 
had been collected. Among their special art treasures 
were Carpaccio's Virgin and Child, and a rich col- 
lection of Pyxs and Chalices. In one of the churches 
a Gewerbeschule (Trade-school) has been established. 

The whole little town is full of rich corners and 
quaint bits, and many of the houses of the former 
patrician families still speak of their former state. 
But Istria must not too long detain us, although in our 
tour down the Dalmatian coast we shall halt at a 
couple of points at the extreme south of the Istrian 
promontory. 



148 



CHAPTER XVII 

DOWN THE ISTRIAN COAST TO DALMATIA, TO SEBENICO 

THE fleet of Austrian Lloyd steamers that 
make the tour of the Dalmatian coast are 
varied ; some fine vessels of big tonnage 
with every possible comfort, others 
smaller, suitable for calling in at the smaller ports, 
with not such luxurious accommodation, but with 
all reasonable comforts, and it is on these steamers 
that one sees more of the real life of the people, and 
there is a marvellous deal of pleasurable, exciting, 
and deeply interesting life, antiquity, and beauty to 
be seen on this journey. 

Leaving Triest, we recede from the city and glide 
out over the wondrous-hued sea; as we look back 
a deep cloud hangs over the town, proving how much 
of work there is in the capital of Istria, the great 
seaport of Austria ; but we soon lose sight of the 
smoke, and see only the white and richly coloured 
sailed boats, and the Medusae in the clear blue 
waters, and the beautiful outline of the distant 
hills. We are sailing into one of the most romantic 
lands left to modern life, over a sea that is full 
of beauty, but that can show its passion, especially 
in the northern part, known as the Quarnero and 
Quarnerolo, the two sections forming the beautiful 
gulf that we shall traverse on our return route for 
Abbazia. 

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Austria 

At first, after leaving the Gulf of Triest, we sail 
down the Gulf of Venice, noting the strange deep 
red hue of the earth on this coast, getting a 
view of Mount Maggiore, near Abbazia, and a 
glimpse of Venice. But we soon bear eastward 
and begin to see the islands and towns on the 
Istrian coast that are so full of antique lore and 
remains, and whose people offer so many traits 
in speech and in customs to interest the linguist and 
the ethnologist. Rovigno is one of these towns 
that well repays a halt. Here, again, is Venetian in- 
fluence dominant in the architecture of the cathedral, 
the campanile of which rises high above the city 
dwellings. Sailing onwards we soon reach the small 
isle of Brioni, a lovely little spot with most charming 
walks — groves of arbutus and laurels that are filled 
with nightingales, or of palms and magnolias, 
scenting the air with their flowers. The sweet 
scent of the flowers and the hay makes one feel we 
are back in idyllic days, alone amidst nature, and 
then we light upon excavations, with rich Roman 
remains, villas, and temples, and we hear that Pliny 
wrote of this island, and that in later mediaeval 
times it was well known. Then suddenly, after 
a lovely, silent walk amidst pastoral scenes, we 
come back to the harbour to see a fine hotel 
with a Kursaal, and all the amenities of life of 
to-day. On one evening we spent here we looked 
out over a roseate silver sea, with the little boats 
with their rich-hued, ruddy orange sails, standing 
out against the setting sun, whilst eastward were 
the silver ripplets from the moon that was arising 
over the silent wooded islet ; all seemed to speak 

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Down the Istrian Coast 

of absolute peace and beauty; but farther away 
rose up on the sea the dark black mass of an 
ironclad, and lights sprang up in the distance of 
a town ; it was Pola, the great naval seaport of 
Austria. 

The first visit to Pola gives one almost a shock as 
we steam in between the silent and wooded islets. 
Suddenly we meet three or four torpedo boats, then 
an ironclad. White-sailed yachts are dotted here 
and there ; The surprise of an Austrian who had 
never seen an ironclad, was intense at this sight. 
" Dass ist kein Kriegsschiff " (that is no warship), 
he muttered repeatedly, sotto voce. " What do you 
think it is ? " I asked. " I don't know, but it is 
no ship." He could not believe such a dingy, dark- 
coloured wall of iron could be a ship, and as one of 
them lay against the rocky islets it did look like part 
rock, or too solid to float. But it is not the Austrian 
navy that draws the traveller to Pola, although the 
Marine Museum, with historic relics of Lepanto, and 
other episodes in Austrian history, is worthy of a visit. 
But the one thing that all go to linger over is the 
great arena standing on the rocky hillside, in lonely 
grandeur, where once 20,000 spectators looked on at 
the games in Roman days. The interior of the arena 
is a good deal filled in by debris of past ages, but the 
outer walls are in good condition, and some excava- 
tion has been done. Pola reminds one frequently 
of the Isle of Wight by its modern life ; and then in 
its churches one is pleasantly thrown back into 
mediaeval days ; and then again by such monu- 
ments as the Temple of Augustus with its relics 
and the handsome Sergius triumphal arch, we are 

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Austria 

back once more in the midst of Rome's imperial 
days. 

There are excellent hotels in Pola, and delightful 
music. Travellers, especially those with good intro- 
ductions, can spend a most enjoyable time here ; 
in the near vicinity are crowds of places where the 
historian and antiquary can revel in the past life 
of the district, and modern sport is not neglected. 
As all the boats call in at Pola, and it is also linked 
with the rail, it makes an excellent halting- spot for 
exploring the promontory of Istria. 

But we are now on the borders of Dalmatia, that 
country into which Titus went. A learned canon once 
travelled thither to find out why Titus took this 
journey ; he came back deeply impressed with the 
country and its beauties, but never solved the Titus 
problem. 

As we sail on southward we pass the two islands of 
Lussino, the sea in the evening being tinted with opal 
and gold, and in the far distance the grey islands and 
white towns stand up against the varied outlines of 
the Velebit mountains. Here the Austrian hills begin 
to assume that strange, soft grey elusiveness in 
certain lights that is so characteristic of Greek 
scenery, whereas at other times cloud-covered, 
they are stern, rugged, and hard in outline. After 
having passed the open gulf of Quarnero there is 
rarely any sea to affect unpleasantly the weakest 
passenger. 

The myriad islands and islets break all force to in- 
fluence a good-sized ship, and the beauty and interest 
is continuous. The only thing is, one wants to remain 
on deck all night, the afterglow and mysterious 

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Down the Istrian Coast 

weirdness of the gloaming is so enticing, and then 
very frequently one feels compelled to be up before 
sunrise to see some famous spot. 

I once entered Zara at 3 a.m. and went ashore in the 
darkness, just as the first faint gleams of dawn gave 
glimpses of towers and buildings. It was one of the 
most impressive walks I have ever taken. All was so 
silent. I met no one, but I passed through narrow 
streets and under archways, and suddenly came into 
the square before the cathedral. The grey gloaming 
was increasing. I could trace the Romanesque arches, 
and the tall towers, and all seemed to breathe of the 
dead past in the darkness and silence, the life of the 
centuries seemed present. Far, far back, even to a 
thousand years B.C., legend says Zara was an im- 
portant town, and the Romans have left many a 
monument here, and on through the troublous ages 
Zara has always been of importance. The curiously 
varied races that have fought for and occupied 
Dalmatia we shall have space to refer to in more 
detail when sailing up the Bocche de Cattaro. As 
I wandered on in the increasing light I came 
to another open space, and here rose a tall 
Corinthian column, certainly of Roman origin ; a 
stray passer-by told me I was in the Piazza de 
l'Erbe, and showed me that the ancient column 
used to be a pillory, for there were still the irons 
hanging by a chain. At its summit was a strange 
beast, said to be the Lion of St Mark. As I 
was standing before this column the light seemed 
suddenly to increase, there passed over the square 
a curious cold shiver, it was the shiver of the 
dawn heralding another day that was breaking. I 

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passed on in my walk round through narrow 
streets, past churches that promised much of interest, 
again through that archway that I learnt was the 
Porta Marina. Now I could see the Lion of Venice 
upon it, and the inscription that tells of the battle of 
Lepanto. 

That there are many interests aroused in Zara was 
evident even in this walk in the dawning light ; and 
afterwards I was able to see the beauty of the work 
that has been left, and the remains that have been 
collected in the museum of St Donato, formerly a 
church built of fragments of Roman work, with narrow 
Romanesque arches. This church has gone through 
all kinds of vicissitudes, having been a military 
magazine and a wine-cellar, but now the building is 
rescued for an honourable purpose, and the collection 
within its walls is of great historical value. The 
learned Monseignor Bulic, of whom we shall hear more 
at Spalato, suggests that here, or near here, was built 
a temple to Livia, the spouse of the Emperor Augustus, 
and part of this temple was used in the ninth century 
to build this church. 

In the cathedral is a vast deal to detain the traveller 
— architecture, wood-carving, and rich metal shrines 
for relics. In the church of St Simeon the minutely 
worked and richly decorated sarcophagus with the 
bones of Simeon is said to have been brought here 
from Jerusalem in 1290. St Simeon is the patron 
Saint of Zara, and on October 8th his feast is kept 
up, an excellent opportunity to see the population of 
Zara and the surrounding country. 

To show that Zara is by no means to-day given 
wholly up to antiquity, we once met a party of 

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British tourists, who, at the short halt of the steamers, 
entered the town solely to find the Maraschino factory, 
for which the place has a great renown. As a fact, 
there are several factories that make this liquor from 
the fruit and leaves of the local cherry or small plum 
that here has a peculiar flavour which will not survive 
the transplantation of the trees. All around Zara are 
spots of historic charm, and perhaps one of the best 
routes whereby to explore the interior of Dalmatia 
and the hill district is to take the route to Benkovac, 
and on to Kistanje, and then on to Knin. Vineyards 
and wild barren lands are passed, and there is plenty 
of work for geologist and historian, and for the lover 
of picturesque peasantry. Of course the best hotels 
must not be expected in this district, but the strange- 
ness and freshness of the experience well repays all 
trouble and inconvenience, and between the towns 
Kistanje and Knin, is the Roman Arch that tells of a 
town referred to by Pliny as a fortress, that became a 
most important commercial town of the Romans in 
the fourth century, where many gold and silver coins, 
inscriptions, and fibulae, rings, weapons, statues, etc., 
have been found. 

In the picturesque town of Knin, that lies on the 
river Krka at the foot of a precipitous crowned rocky 
hill, there is a good hotel and an interesting house 
industry of the peasants, and, above all, a museum with 
finds of the Neolithic and bronze ages, and a remark- 
able collection of Croatic antiquities, Byzantine coins, 
and finds of women's ornaments, that are partly like 
those found in Bosnia, and others as those discovered 
amongst the Cechs and Wends. 

From Knin excursions may be made into the water- 

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fall district of the Krka. The Velebit mountains that 
lie to the north rise to a height of 6000 feet, as do the 
Dinaric Alps that lie to the north and east. The 
costume, dances, and folklore of the peasantry is full 
of matter for the student and artist. 



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CHAPTER XVIII 

DOWN THE DALMATIAN COAST FROM SEBENICO 
TO CATTARO 

FROM Knin the railway can be taken to 
Sebenico, but we will resume our pleasant sea 
route between the rocky islands and over 
the gentle, placid sea, meeting those who 
come overland from Knin at the port of Sebenico, 
from whence also excursions can be made to the Krka 
waterfalls. In this district the peasants wear a 
gorgeous costume, the women covering themselves 
with coins and filagree ornaments, and the men have a 
rich-toned eastern dress. 

There is an immense deal to excite the wonders of 
the traveller in this district, both in the population, 
the scenery, and the relics of past civilisation. The 
quaint customs of the peasant folk, and their stern, 
hard habits, the women still being treated somewhat 
after the eastern fashion, as creatures of burden and 
use, but yet with a freedom that is not eastern. To 
see a group dancing, dressed in all their finery of coin- 
decked headgear, and bejewelled dresses, is a fascinat- 
ing sight. The peasants of the inland are called 
Morlaken, from a combination of More, Sea, and 
Volacco, Wallacks, say some writers ; but to-day 
they prefer to be called Serbs or Croats, or simply 
Dalmatians. 

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Like all primitive races they are fond of festivals 
and weddings, christenings, and funerals ; and fair or 
market days give occasion for gatherings, whereat 
their interesting dresses and customs can well be 
studied. The scenery of the Krka, with its lakes 
and waterfalls, reminds one somewhat, of what the 
Trollhattan district in Sweden was before the falls 
were despoiled of their beauty by big industrial, 
ugly buildings ; but, of course, colour and vegetation 
are very different here to the northern growth and 
colour. 

To get a good insight into the history, folklore, 
population, and antiquities of this district, and, in 
fact, of the whole of Dalmatia, a work by Reinhard 
Petermann, issued by the society for developing 
the kingdom of Dalmatia, is an excellent, learned, 
and pleasantly written volume, well illustrated by 
Herr Fischer ; we can merely suggest, in our 
space, all the novel sights and fascinating history 
that may here be met with and studied, and 
must wander onwards, southwards to Sebenico, 
that has been called from its appearance and 
position a little Genoa. Here in the open space 
by the Poljana the peasants of the district gather, 
and in the cathedral they may be seen at the 
festivals. 

To see the very beautiful great doorway of the 
cathedral, with its rich floreated and figured decora- 
tion in pointed Gothic, is alone worth a halt in 
Sebenico. Begun in the middle of the fifteenth 
and finished in the middle of the sixteenth century, 
the building is full of rich details and forms a 
glorious whole. 

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In the civic buildings Venetian influence is quickly 
seen, as so frequently throughout Dalmatia, and in 
wandering about the narrow streets, many of them 
stepped, the jewellers' shops with the local trinkets, 
and the figures of the passers-by bedecked with 
these trinkets on their gay costumes, will fascinate 
the artist and the lover of quaint, picturesque 
costume. 

It is not far from Sebenico to Spalato, but we must 
make a halt at Trau en route, for it is perhaps the 
quaintest, if not the most important, of these remark- 
able towns. We coast around the point known as 
Punta Planka, where the more eastern trend of the 
coast begins, and soon reach the islet on which the 
fortified Trau was built, a curiously picturesque 
scene — the old town with its walls and the beautiful 
campanile of its cathedral, all seemingly lying 
in a placid sea of silver-grey, deep blue, or 
ruddy-gold, according to the lights in which it is 
seen. 

A veritable mediaeval Venetian town, a happy 
hunting ground for the heraldic student, for historian 
and architect, and especially for the amateur of 
peasant costume and lore. Herr Petermann regrets 
that the Venetian occupiers built such terribly 
strong houses 400 years ago, so that the grand- 
fathers of the present race had not to rebuild, 
but it is this that makes Trau so deeply 
valuable to traveller and student. Cathedral and 
churches, religious houses, and the homes of 
wealthy burghers, all have rich architectural details, 
and even carry us far back into Greek pre- 
Christian days. We shall get a glimpse of the whole 

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line of history of Dalmatia, and the variety of races 
that have influenced it when we are at Cattaro. But 
in spite of the enticements of Trau we must sail 
out again over the placid bay in which Trau 
lies, and onward round through the channel of 
Spalato. that imperial city, the home of the Emperor 
Diocletian. 

There are other ways of arriving at Spalato than 
by steamer, for here is (it seems incongruous) a 
railway station, and one can drive from Trau to 
Castle Vitturi, and thence, by boat, to Spalato, 
thus seeing the Riviera of the Seven Castles, where 
olive and myrtle, pomegranates and laurel flourish 
luxuriantly. 

As we sail into the harbour of Spalato, at 
once the long line of palatial buildings that 
faces the sea front arrests the attention. It is 
our first glimpse of that marvellous palace built 
by Diocletian ; the grand columns of the facade 
are still there, with shops half hiding them, 
but behind this long facade is the little antique 
town, built literally in the palace of the Emperor; 
the corridors and courts of the palace, now 
serving as streets, and open spaces for the town. 
But modern buildings have stretched beyond this 
square space, for the town now has almost 70,000 
inhabitants. 

There is a marvellous bewilderment at first in 
wandering about Spalato. The tiny streets, with 
grand tall columns and arches and Latin inscriptions, 
are so unlike any other town. The crowds of men and 
women in strangely varied and brilliant costumes, 
some with turban and fez, speak of the east. The 

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passing from the Riva amidst the shifting and active 
modern cafe life, into this city of the dead, so filled 
with busy life, is a sensation that abides in the mind. 
A Roman palace, and now a town where 3000 dwellers 
have their homes ; of the great columns of the facade 
thirty-eight remain out of fifty-two. There are also 
interesting mediaeval remains, such as the Venetian 
Hrvoja Tower, built in the fifteenth century. Many 
will linger in the two market-places, the fruit and 
green markets, to study the people, with their produce 
brought in on gaily- decked asses ; but soon we see 
the portal of the cathedral, and a sphinx resting under 
a lofty arcade, and we find we are before one of the 
strangest of ecclesiastical buildings ; this was the 
peristyle of the palace, and is now the entrance to the 
cathedral, once, according to some writers, the mauso- 
leum of the Emperor. Immediately on entering one 
sees it is a Roman building, temple or mausoleum, with 
fine Corinthian columns of Egyptian granite sur- 
mounted by lesser columns of porphyry. It is stated 
by some to have been a temple of Diana — Signor 
Parisic amongst others ; a richly sculptured frieze 
of chariots and hunting scenes gives weight to this 
statement. 

The arrangement as a Christian Church in this 
circular building is curious. The pulpit is in good 
Byzantine style, and the stalls have very remarkable 
carvings. The antique treasures preserved here are 
very rich : early crosses and missals, and reliquaries. 
Near the cathedral is the little Temple of Jupiter, 
now the Baptistry. The doors of the cathedral, in 
their rich early carving, remind one of the famous 
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portals at Hildesheim, but these are of wood, not 
bronze. 

We passed onwards from this strange, fascinating 
building, through the narrow streets, often with 
good square arches, or round, vaulted arches, through 
which in the narrow dark streets passed the gay colours 
of the peasant dresses. On the land side of the town 
we came to the Porta Aurea, or Golden Gate, a gate 
long hid in the debris of later buildings, but now laid 
bare ; and as we were fortunate enough to have 
with us Mons. Bulic, the learned director of the 
museum, and historian of Spalato, he took us up the 
narrow steps to above the arch of the gateway, and 
here to our delight and surprise was a tiny chapel, 
about the size of that richly bejewelled Carl's chapel, 
in Carlstein, that we saw in Bohemia. This chapel 
is of the ninth century, and had been hidden for 
ages, but the little early windows were still there, 
and standing by the tiny screen that separated the 
chapel from the entrance was a sweet-faced nun, thus 
completing the beautiful picture of tins linking of a 
Roman gateway to early Christian life, and on to our 
own day. 

From this Porta Aurea we passed round to 
the Porta Argentea, on the east wall of the 
palace, where is housed the extraordinary rich finds 
made by Mons. Bulic and others — not only at 
Spalato but at Salona, the Pompeii of Dalmatia. 
Here were we indeed blessed in having the 
Monseignor with us, for he showed us of his 
best treasures from under lock and key, and 
most delightful was his explanation of the sites 

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of the finds and the history and usage of them, 
for they included women's ornaments, fibulae, rings, 
earrings, trinkets, and curious locks of intricate work- 
manship. Two inkstands he had found; only four 
such are known in the world. One gold ring 
was of complex work. It could be made into a 
single broad ring, or into three rings, suitable for 
man or woman. The sarcophagi were exception- 
ally fine, with expressive sculpture, reminding one 
in their beauty, almost, of those in the museum of 
Constantinople, of Alexander and others, but they were 
not of such great dimensions. Coins, statues, reliefs, 
inscriptions, altars, vases, urns, domestic utensils, 
including glass feeding-bottles, in fact, nearly every 
item of Roman life that the earth has preserved 
to us can be studied here, though badly housed, to 
Mons. Bulic's repeated regrets. One of the best 
books on this and Spalato and Salona is by Prof. 
Jelic, Mons. Bulic, and Prof. Rutar ; the work 
already referred to by Herr Petermann in German, 
has also good chapters on this district and the 
museum. Salona is but a short distance by rail 
from Spalato, or half an hour's drive ; really this is 
the best way to go, as the view of the city, bay, 
and mountains tells one of the lovely site the Romans 
chose for this town, the excavations of which Mons. 
Bulic has superintended. I was pleased to meet 
this enthusiastic and learned antiquary, for by a 
curious sequence of events I have met most of the 
great explorers of antiquity by the spade — Mr 
Layard, Dr Schliemann, Comendatore Boni of the 
Forum excavations, Prof. Salinas of Sicily, the 

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Abbe Delattre of Carthage ; and Mons. Bulic is as 
ardent as either of these explorers in his eagerness 
for the work, but is terribly hampered by the want 
of a suitable building and lack of funds. Much of 
the Roman work in Salona has in former days been 
utilised, and so destroyed, but columns, and pillars, 
the city gates and walls, the theatre and amphi- 
theatre can be traced, and, as in Pompeii, the streets, 
pavements, and wheel ruts, vividly bringing back the 
past. 

It is with regret that one leaves Spalato and 
sails out over the lovely sea, beneath the exquisite 
blue of the sky, and looking back there rises 
up that long, noble sea front, that now we can 
understand. 

To visit the smaller towns and the islands down 
this coast, local Lloyd steamers should be taken, 
such as the Triest-Metkovic or the Triest-Cattaro 
route. There are crowds of peasants and merchandise 
on these boats, and plenty of quaint scenes full of 
strange beauty that are not so well seen on the larger 
express boats. There are other lines of steamers 
with lesser fleets, such as the Hungarian and the 
Cesare lines, that it is as well to know of, as they 
also call at the smaller places. 

A vast amount of rich hunting ground for the 
travellers lies on the route between Spalato and 
Ragusa. On the islands — such as Brazza, Lessina — 
one can get many a romantic story of bygone days, 
and relics back into the Greek period, and at Metkovic 
we are on the river Narenta, that descends through 
Mostar in Herzegovina. Metkovic was a great Serbian 

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stronghold ; from thence in their galleys the Serbs held 
the whole district in awe, leaguing with the Saracens 
and compelling even Venice to pay them tribute. 
Not only is the history romantic, but the natural 
beauty of these islands is so varied and beautiful. 
One morning, in the middle of May, I came on deck 
at 8 a.m. to find we were just off the steep rocky 
islet of St Andrea, and on the south-east lay the 
longer islands of Lissa. We were sailing over the 
battle sea plain of 1866, when on that summer day 
in July the Austrian navy, under Admiral Tegetthoff, 
crushed the Italian navy and made the Adriatic so 
largely an Austrian sea. 

But we halted not at Lissa, but bore south from 
St Andrea, for the small island of Busi, where are 
ten caverns of varied beauty discovered by Baron 
Ransonnet — one, the Bearshole, being over 160 
yards in length ; but the most beautiful and wonder- 
ful of these is the Blue Grotto, found by the Baron 
in 1884, and as yet but little known to the world. 
The island is very rocky, and yet with rich grass upon 
the fairly high hills. The sea when seen with just 
a breaking ripple is of a lovely aquamarine. As we 
near the island the colour changes to a wondrous 
crystal blue, and as we draw still nearer, beneath the 
greyish yellow lichen- covered rocks, to an emerald 
green. A few people were on the rocks, and boats 
awaited us, and in the very gently heaving sea we 
passed, sitting low in the boat, under the low arch of 
the cavern, with just space for the boat to glide in, 
where all was dark, and then emerged into a wondrous 
strange shimmer of light. We were in a cavern, with 

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the water beneath us full of light and of turquoise or 
clear crystal tones ; then came a narrow passage with 
rocks on either side, and the colour of the water was 
of a superb hue. Slowly we emerged into a second 
cavern, with a yet more intense light far beneath ; 
as the oars slowly lifted, crystal gems of light dropped 
from them, and looking back we saw a fairy scene of 
supreme beauty. Beneath us the water, down to the 
pebbles below, that looked as jewels, was of clear, 
crystal silvery hue, faintly tinged with a tender blue ; 
farther away it was of deeper blue ; and behind us 
in the strange light came another dark boat, lying 
on this crystal sea, so full of light. Half hid, 
half seen, the figures in this boat, lit with the light 
from beneath, were strangely weird. On looking 
back as we issued from this natural marvel the effect 
of the high vault of grey-yellow rock, warm in the 
sunlight and the different colour of the open sea, was 
very beautiful. 

v In comparing afterwards the beauty of this Blue 
Grotto of Busi, and that of Capri, we found opinions 
very divided. Some said this cavern was the finer, 
especially the passage from the first to the second 
cavern, but that the blue of Capri was more pro- 
nounced ; others that the blue tone here is the 
finest ; but all agree that we had seen a marvel of 
nature, and are thankful that the sea had permitted 
our entry, for with even a little wind the entry is 
impossible. 

We sailed back past the grey stone isle of Lissa, 
with high hills and little herbage, until on the south 
side we saw some trees, and then steered onwards 

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Down the Dalmatian Coast 

between Lessina and Curzola, with, on the port side, 
Sabbioncello, and ahead Meleda. 

As night was falling we halted on the coast of 
Sabbioncello, at the little port of Trstenik, or Terstenik, 
which lies in a little bay. A tiny hamlet lay under the 
high hills with a little mole on which gleamed a red 
light. The people put out a couple of boats to see this 
strange sight of a big ship all lit up, with music and 
dancing on board, for we were on one of the finest of 
the Lloyd fleet, the Thalia, with people from twenty- 
four nations on board for an International Press 
Congress, and our music re-echoed against the silent, 
grey, rocky hills, that had never, perchance, before 
given back such sounds. 

The southern point of Sabbioncello is not far from 
the entrance into Gravosa, the port for Ragusa, that 
powerful city that dates back to the sixth century B.C., 
when the Greeks founded here Epidaurus. But 
before ascending the long incline to the walls of 
Ragusa there are some nature marvels to hold us for 
a time at Gravosa, the port for the heavy traffic of 
Ragusa. 

This town stands at the mouth of the Ombla, 
that here opens out into a lovely bay surrounded by 
wooded-terraced hills and dotted dwellings, inter- 
cepted by groups of tall, dark cypress trees. A 
peculiar little excursion is to ascend the fiord-like 
opening of the Ombla, shut in by precipitous high 
rocks, to where the river flows in pure crystal water 
over a weir. Beyond this is a building where artificial 
ice is produced, and rising beyond this we see a great 
amphitheatre and wall of rock, with, it appears, no 

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outlet ; but at the very foot of this rock, and from 
it, as it were, there runs a large body of water, exactly 
as does the Aire in Yorkshire at Malham Cove, but 
with a far greater body of water. Near the falls is 
an old chapel dating from the twelfth century. A 
quaint little excursion this, leading pleasantly up to 
the beauty of Ragusa, which we can reach from here 
by water or road, the way from Gravosa to Ragusa 
being a gentle ascent of three kilometres, say two 
miles, that is worth walking, for the gradual opening 
out of the wonderful view, and the pretty entrance 
into the antique city, between lovely gardens, and 
picturesque houses, emboAvered in cypress and palms, 
oranges and myrtles, glorious roses and flowers, and 
every type of southern vegetation. 

And yet the entrance to Ragusa should also be 
made by water to get the view of its walls and towers, 
and all its picturesque buildings, but we shall see 
this in returning from Cannosa and Lacroma. 

Ragusa itself is full of mediaeval charm, both of 
people and city, with a wealthy population enjoying 
the twentieth-century amenities of good hotels and 
social life. The view from the terrace of the Hotel 
Imperial at once tells how much there is to see in 
Ragusa, and the palm-shaded gardens, full of glorious 
flowers, gives rest and quiet after exciting sight- 
seeing. 

To descend from these modern surroundings, down 
the hill to the erstwhile drawbridge and solid round 
towers and imposing walls of the town, is to leap 
back in the centuries, while the groups of peasants 
with bedecked mules and asses, the men in fez and 

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Down the Dalmatian Coast 

turban, and the women in bright, very varied costume, 
all aid the sensation, and as we pass on down the long 
Corso, or Stradone, and come to the open spaces with 
public buildings and churches, cathedral, and, above 
all, the rector's beautiful palace, one can picture 
fifteenth-century life ; nay, on a fete day one has 
it here. 

In the small market-place still stands the rich 
architecture of the old patrician houses. Balconies 
and portals and coats of arms are all well executed. 

Whilst standing here on a soft spring day, the 
weird wailing notes of music of a funeral procession 
pierced through the air, and the church bells clanged 
forth as the funeral procession drew near. On another 
occasion we were present in Ragusa for Corpus 
Christi procession, when the roads were strewn with 
flowers and the scene was indeed rich in mediaeval 
form and tones. 

The little Mint, now the Dogana, has some very 
rich Venetian work in its windows and arches; 
opposite is the Roland statue, and close by is a lovely 
Renaissance fountain, where the women in the pretty 
costumes foregather, forming pretty pictures, while 
their vases are rilling. 

The Loggia under the rector's palace, where there 
is a cafe, forms a pleasant resting-place, and one can 
examine the capitals of the pillars and their rich 
sculpture, of such subjects as the Judgment of Solo- 
mon, iEsculapius, etc., the whole reminding one so con- 
tinuously of Venice. It has suffered much, since first 
built in 1388, from fire and earthquake. The inner 
court is most picturesque, with its arcaded arches and 

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fine stairways, and above one sees here and there the 
iron klamps, or ties, holding the building together 
after the earthquake. 

A building that suffered terribly from the 1667 
earthquake was the cathedral, but it has very much 
within it of interest. The building is said to owe its 
origin to a vow of Richard Coeur de Lion ; it is a fact 
that he was the guest of the Ragusan Senate in 1192. 
Especially noteworthy are the treasures of bejewelled 
reliquaries that are marvels of Byzantine and other 
schools of the metal-worker's art. The greatest 
marvel of all is the gold reliquary, that holds the head 
of St Rlasius. Brought from the east in 1206, it is 
of the old Byzantine Justinian's period, and en- 
riched with twelfth-century medallions, with Longo- 
bard inscriptions. Another rich reliquary contains 
the hand of the Saint, and the whole treasury is 
nearly equal to that of Santiago for rich work and 
precious bejewelled metals. 

But Ragusa and its surroundings, so fascinating 
are they, claims too much of our space, but before 
quitting it we take a boat across to the little isle of 
Lacroma. We pass out round the harbour, and see 
well the grim old walls and red roofs of the houses 
of the town above the lovely blue of the water. A 
white-robed courteous monk received us, and con- 
ducted us up the idyllic little rock landing-place to 
the monastery. We are where Richard Coeur de 
Lion is said to have landed on his hapless return from 
the Crusades, here fulfilling his vow to build a church 
on the spot whereon he should be saved from the 
tempest. One tradition says he founded the cathedral 

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THE WALLS I IF RAG1 SA 



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Down the Dalmatian Coast 

of Ragusa, i.e. Maria Maggiore. A later monarch 
who lived here was King Maximilian. The gardens 
are now partly in decay, but are yet very lovely. In 
the beautiful cloisters the masses of roses are in 
clusters of hundreds, and aloes, vines, and palms 
flourish profusely ; on the rocky coast the water is so 
pure and crystal, one longed indeed to linger on this 
lovely silent isle. 

Another remarkable water excursion is to Cannosa, 
where lives the learned Count Gozze, whose family 
is one of the oldest in Ragusa, having been 
patrician in the tenth century. We were favoured 
with introductions to the present holder of the title, 
and found him a most charming host and learned 
historian. We landed at the little port, and were soon 
in the rich vegetation that formed the gardens of 
Count Gozze's home — prickly pear, camphor trees, 
bamboos, oranges, mandarins, great clusters of arum 
lilies, bread fruit-trees, interspersed with fountains 
and statues. In one place was an oak 700 years old, 
but in the village at the top of the hill were two 
gigantic plane trees, one of which it took eleven 
persons with outstretched arms to encircle, the trunk 
being about 66 feet in circumference. The whole 
place and the people are interesting, and in the 
count's house are treasures of art and antiquity of 
great value. 

One can quickly reach Herzegovina from Gravosa 
by rail, but we must steam out of the picturesque 
bay southward, to enter that strange, beautiful fiord 
of the Dalmatian coasts, the Bocche di Cattaro. 

The steamers frequently enter the Bocche, or mouth 

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of Cattaro, very early in the morning, and the entry 
and sail up the Bocche is one of the most enchanting 
sights the world has to give. It was at five a.m. on 
a lovely morning late in May when we had the 
best entry into the Bocche, and as we made the 
Punto d'Ostro the sun was just climbing over the 
grey rocky hills, and ahead were the mist-wreathed 
mountains of Montenegro. A tiny ruddy-sailed bark 
lay on the blue bay. Hills were all around us as we 
glided in ; an old Roman fort told of the centuries of 
life ; then we came to a narrow pass with a town 
ahead, Ercegnovi, or Castelnuovo, as the Venetians 
named it, the scene of many a fierce struggle, 
especially between cross and crescent. We can steam 
close in as there is deep water, and we see the old 
castle and square tower and lovely woods above. 
The scene is very like the Bosphorus, and lying here 
was the yacht given by the Czar of Russia to the 
Prince, now the King of Montenegro. 

We bear nearly east over the sea, now grey in 
shadow, then turn sharply to the right southwards, 
and we are in the middle of the narrow Kumbor 
channel ; a black mass lies ahead under the shadow 
of the mountains — it is an ironclad, and on the other 
side, at the narrowed point, are other vessels. This 
narrow pass is very lovely, like one of the beautiful 
passes on the Danube. 

We then bore across the wide, beautiful inland sea 
towards the island of Stradioti, with the tiny islet 
and church of Sam Otok before it. 

Here was a flat plain land with the hills rising 
above, grey and wreathed in mists, and all round a 

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Down the Dalmatian Coast 

placid silver sea, a scene like the Italian lakes plus 
the Bosphorus, and in the grey morning light we 
saw shoals of fish, of which there were tunny, sardines, 
and mackerel. But now we turned northward, and 
made for the Channel of the Chains, the most narrow 
part of the Bocche, and blocked formerly by chains. 
It is only 1000 feet across, yet there is twenty 
fathoms depth of water, and the hills run up to 3000 
or 4000 feet. 

As we issue from this pass a superb scene of glory 
and beauty opens out. Two romantic little islets 
are ahead, floating in a turquoise sea, St Giorgio 
and Madonna della Scapella, with churches, and 
spires, and domes, partly hid by tall cypress trees, 
and ahead are the towns of Perasto, famous, like Devon, 
for its seamen, and Risano, the earliest Illyrian 
settlement, behind which climbs up, in serpentine 
fashion, the old road to Montenegro. 

We now steer eastward, and bearing to the south, 
are in the spacious Gulf of Cattaro. As we skirt 
along the southern shore we pass the two townlets 
of Upper and Lower Stoliva. Green pasture is on 
the lower slopes and on the grey heights above. All 
these little townlets have their old churches, with 
well-built Venetian types of campanile, that o'ertop 
the tall dark cypress and olive trees. Ahead we could 
see the snow still on the mountains of Montenegro. 

On the opposite shore, that is not far off, is the little 
town of Dobrota, where the houses have portholes 
for shooting in case of an attack, and on our port 
side is the town of Perzagno (Prcanj), where for many 
years they have been building a cathedral. 

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But ahead is Cattaro, and as we enter the sunlight 
comes down from between the hills, and lights up 
the line of mist on the mountains, and the low-lying 
mist on the lake-like beautiful bay, and this strangely 
enchanting entry into this land of novel charm is 
ended. We have given it some space, but how in- 
adequate to even imply all the beauty, and history, 
and legend that clings around the Bocche di 
Cattaro. 

The quay at which we land is really the promenade 
and market-place of the town, and is full of brilliant 
detail of the varied peasant life. The handsome 
Montenegrin women, in their picturesque little caps 
and coloured dress, bring their produce here for sale, 
and the stalwart men, and the men of Cattaro and 
the hills around, and the peasants wearing the fez 
and Turkish breeches, all form wondrous groups of 
form, and colour, and character. 

The town, seen from the beautiful harbour, has a 
most romantic ensemble. The great wall zigzags 
up the craggy hill, locking the city in beneath the 
precipitous cliff that entirely overhangs it. By the 
old zigzag path one can climb up to Montenegro in 
three and a half hours, and in eight hours to the top 
of the mountain, and it is worth while to climb up 
this steep, many-stepped path to above the houses, 
to look down into the town and out over the beautiful 
bay. The great cathedral, with its double towers, 
lies in the square, and the strangely quaint, narrow 
streets that lead up to this are full of bits of archi- 
tectural beauty and history. Venice, of course, asserts 
herself. The Porta Marina, through which we passed 

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Down the Dalmatian Coast 

into the town, has the Lion of St Mark upon it. 
The cathedral goes back to the eighth century, and 
enshrines the bones of St Trifon, whose day, the third 
of February, is held as a festival by the Marinarezza, 
formerly a guild of seamen of the whole of the Bocche ; 
here alone is a subject for the historian. There is 
another little church, St Luca, that reminds one of 
the small old cathedral at Athens ; here the Greek 
rites are observed. 

The town of Cattaro is one to slowly wander about in, 
and watch the strangely varied crowds, and gaze into 
the quaint shops with the hand workers at their work, 
especially at the filagree work, and then to go out to 
the Riva and watch the marketers and people from 
the coast and mountain towns. 

An insight into the history of this district gives 
a new light on many problems of to-day, and upon 
the varied races that are united under the Austrian 
Crown ; and at the risk of allowing too much space 
to Dalmatia, we give a succinct summary of the 
history of this district. 

The languages spoken are chiefly Croatian and 
Serbian, really a single language with a double 
alphabet, the Serbians using the Russian letters and 
alphabet, the Croats the Latin. Rizano claims to be 
the earliest town on this fiord of the south, dating 
from 228 b.c, and in 168 b.c. the last old Illyrian king 
was led in triumph as a prisoner to Rome, and from 
138 b.c. the Bocche became part of the Illyrian Roman 
province. In the ninth century a.d. the Saracens 
destroyed Cattaro, and in the tenth century we have 
the first entry of the Slav folk, the Serbians, into this 

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local history, and in 1002 the famous Bulgarian Czar 
Samuel, who figures so prominently in Bulgarian 
legend and history, captured Rizano and Cattaro. 

A romantic and tragic point in this history was 
when the Norman Princess Jacquinta came here and 
succeeded in making her son George, king. This 
period, with the history of the Princess Jacquinta, 
has been utilised of late in local drama. In the 
middle of the fourteenth century the Serbians, with 
the help of the men of Cattaro, seriously defeated 
the Bulgarians, and for a time held the district ; 
and in 1370 the town placed itself under the pro- 
tection of Ludwig the First of Hungary ; but the rule 
of Hungary was short-lived, and King Turtko of 
Bosnia and Serbia stepped in and seized upon this 
and other territories given up by Elizabeth of 
Hungary. This reign also was short-lived, and after 
a victory over the Ragusans, Cattaro remained a free 
town and a republic for a while, until 1420, when the 
Venetians, under Pietro Loredano, appeared, and on 
the 23rd of April agreed that Cattaro should retain 
its free government, that Venice should not hand it 
over to a third state, and also that it should retain its 
right to coin the " Triffoni " coins, with the patron 
saint St Trifon on them. For a time under Venetian 
overlordship there was peace ; then came the 
Moslems, and from 1480, in view of this danger, a 
Venetian commander, with the title of rector, resided 
in Cattaro, but in 1483 the Turks captured Castelnuovo, 
and for 200 years the struggle between cross and 
crescent continued, until in 1687 the Venetians re- 
conquered Castelnuovo and the Bocche became wholly 

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Down the Dalmatian Coast 

under the rule of Venice, a rule that was light, and 
gave freedom to the people, with but few taxes. 
In 1797 Austria became overlord of the Bocche in a 
fairly peaceful fashion, but in 1806 the French fought 
for the district, and the Russians occupied Cattaro ; 
but in 1807, after the peace of Tilsit, the Bocche was 
handed over to the French, who held it for six years, 
until the battle of Leipzig ; then the French general 
held it until December 27th 1813, when he capitu- 
lated to the English fleet under Hoste. The English 
rule only lasted twelve days, when Hoste handed 
Cattaro over to Montenegro, whose prince held it until 
June 14, 1814, when again the Austrians marched in, 
and since that date, with the exception of certain 
risings in 1840 against taxes, and later on in one or 
two towns against conscription, risings that Austria 
has dealt with in a lenient and diplomatic fashion, 
this, during more than two thousand years most 
troubled land., has been at peace, in its marvellously 
beautiful home, where nature has been lavishly 
prodigal with almost every type of blessing she can 
bestow. 

This curt history will show of what strangely 
mingled origin are the people of this homeland of 
Austria, and what volcanic elements she has to lead 
and control. 

The express steamers take one quickly back from 
Cattaro and Ragusa to Triest, but we must bear 
up eastward and sail up the ofttimes turbulent 
Quarnero, to halt awhile at the new resort on these 
Adriatic shores, the gay, prosperous bathing resort of 
Abbazia that so rapidly has become a European 
pleasure resort. Abbazia is a paradise of roses and 

M I77 



Austria 

palms. On one palm trunk a rose tree was climbing, 
that was said to have four thousand blooms upon it, 
and the sight of it confirmed the statement. Hand- 
some villas and lovely walks skirt the soft languid 
sea that laps so gently on the pebbly and rocky beach, 
where numerous bathing resorts are well arranged. 
There is a palatial Kurhaus, plenty of music and 
amusements, and the music is peculiarly interesting, 
because of the proximity of all types of national music, 
Slav, Magyar, and Italian, and this is given by wander- 
ing musicians who play with enthusiasm and brilliancy, 
and we have as well the choice, effective rendering of 
great works by good Austrian orchestras, and the 
excellent orchestra of the Direction. 

The view from the promenade, and from between 
the trees and palms of the gardens of all the bay with 
its dotted towns, including Fiume, is very lovely ; 
the soft blue sea and grey-brown rocky bays, with 
idyllic little hamlets, the fashionable resorts, such as 
Lovrana, with their palatial hotels and luxurious 
southern gardens, all redolent with sweet-smelling 
flowers and trees, make the whole bay a most enchant- 
ing winter and spring resort, and in summer it is not 
too hot. The Monte Maggiore is a prominent feature 
in the view, and this shields Abbazia from all chilly 
winds. Not a quarter of a century old, Abbazia has 
no old buildings to renovate ; all is of the newest, and 
the curative institutions are scientifically up to date 
and under careful control of the Administration, and 
sports, regattas, illuminations, excursions, dances, 
theatricals, give no chance for ennui ; whilst the lover 
of nature is quickly alone in a deep forest, or on a 
silent sea beach ; and the student of man and history 

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Down the Dalmatian Coast 

will soon discover near by old towns and quaint 
hamlets to interest him deeply with architecture 
and folklore. 

But we must quit the Adriatic shore, passing up 
the pretty zigzag road that climbs up to the station 
of the Southern railway. 



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CHAPTER XIX 

THROUGH KUSTENLAND, GORIZIA (GORZ), AND 
CARINTHIA (KARNTEN) 

TO travel from Abbazia, in the soft gentle 
air of the Adriatic, to Gorizia, we double 
back on our route to Triest from Carniola, 
and running westwards at St Peter's 
commence the northward trend of our journey at 
Opcina above Triest, still bearing westward across 
the Kiistenland, i.e. coast lands. 

There is a town lying somewhat to the south of this 
route that is of great importance from the historical 
point of view, the Roman city of Aquileia, that has 
been so often referred to, and whence come the rich 
finds of Greek and Roman antiquity which we shall 
see in the museum at Gorz. 

But in Aquileia also is a museum, in what is now 
but a townlet, although of great importance as a 
Roman city before Attila, in 451 a.d., swept down 
upon it. The colony was founded 200 b.c. After 
Attila's vengeance the dwellers in Aquileia fled to 
the Lagunes and founded Venice. An eleventh- 
century cathedral proves that the town recovered 
from this blow of Attila's, and was of importance in 
mediaeval times. 

To English travellers Aquileia is interesting as 
the spot where Richard Cceur de Lion was wrecked on 
his return from the Holy Land, and afterwards spent 

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Klistenland, Gorizia, and Carinthia 

so many months in prison. We have given the other 
account of his landing at Lacroma, and his fulfilling 
his vow in Ragusa. The route from Opcina to Gorizia 
traverses a great distance of the wild barren Karst 
mountains ; like Dartmoor, a wild waste of rock and 
heather, but with many parts being reclaimed and 
afforested, and looking rich and green between the 
grey, rocky wilderness. 

At Gorizia, or Gorz, we are still amidst a southern 
vegetation of palms and magnolias and roses. In 
the pretty public gardens these flourish, and the 
hotel garden has seats amidst a wealth of myrtle 
and oleanders, and in the spring beneath palms in 
rich golden bloom. 

In the Piazza Grande one looks up to the dominant 
castle, its grey old walls and towers standing out 
above the wooded slopes that lead up to it from the 
town. Below in the Piazza, the Jesuit church in 
Renaissance architecture, with the picturesque onion 
domes, stands just before the Neptune fountain. The 
whole town has a peaceful placid look about it, in 
spite of the great barracks that line the road leading 
out to the railway. 

The chief thing to linger over in Gorz, beyond the 
natural beauty of the vegetation of its surroundings, is 
the old building in the Piazza Corno, utilised as a 
museum. This was not in the order and excellent 
arrangement generally found in the Austrian museum, 
but the collection is of great value, especially the 
finds from Aquileia. Early Roman and Greek heads 
of great beauty and care of workmanship, earlier 
finds of bronze and iron weapons, and vases and 
some interesting Egyptian tablets. There is also a 

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Austria 

collection of coins, and interesting glass, and some 
fine Etruscan vases. 

The town itself is of the Italian type, with narrow 
arcaded streets, and three languages are spoken — 
Italian, Slav, and German. The cathedral is hardly 
worth a visit save for its rich treasury, formerly 
belonging to the Patriarch of Aquileia. 

The district we traverse through Gorizia to enter 
Carinthia, or Karnten, is through a most wild, strange 
district of deep mountain ravines and narrow defiles, 
where mountain torrents of a delicate turquoise hue, 
varying to creamy white, rush between the fantastically 
worn grey rocks, and give constant music beside the 
winding roads. In some places the rivers form little 
lakelets of this soft hue, surrounded by coral-like 
rocks in graduated steps. At St Lucia we are nearing 
Carniola, but we pass through this district which we 
have already visited, and after passing the long 
Karawanken tunnel, that opened this country 
more fully to the world, we pass Rosenbach, and 
make our halt in Villach, one of the chief towns in 
Carinthia. 

The development of this district through the new 
railway that since 1897 has made Villach a most 
important centre for all travellers has been most 
remarkable. I first visited Villach in that year when 
there was but one small station and the ordinary 
inn accommodation. Now there are two impor- 
tant stations and numerous large hotels, although 
perhaps the old spacious inns hold their own for 
comfort. 

The town has a busy prosperous air, the people 
here being largely of German stock, as is the whole 

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[N Mil. [ZONZO VALLKY 



Klistenland, Gorizia, and Carinthia 

of Carinthia, with, of course, a mixture, about 25 
per cent, of the Slav or Slavonian folk, who still 
wear the picturesque dress on church fetes and 
holidays. 

The district around Villach is full of opportunity for 
delightful expeditions and excursions ; the town itself 
has a pleasant, old-world air about it. The charm and 
even wonder in visiting these towns is to be amidst 
medigeval surroundings, old churches, old monuments, 
inns with arched passages and vaulted pillared 
chambers, and yet to be also in the midst of 
the latest developments of science and building 
art. 

The view from the bridge over the Drave that here 
rushes tumultuously through the town is very pleasant, 
with a good view of the Dobratsch mountain. A 
stroll up the main street to the fine Gothic church of 
St Jacob will disclose many historic memorials, such 
as the house of Theophrastus Paracelsus, where 
Charles V. stayed in 1552, and some good examples of 
wood and iron work. The monuments in the church 
are very remarkable, and the carved figures of value 
for the dress of the period. The marble pulpit is a 
fine piece of work, with figures of Adam and David, 
etc., well executed. It is worth while being here for a 
service, for the organ is a fine one and the singing 
good. The history of the district can be studied in 
the museum ; and of present developments one of the 
most interesting places is the woodwork school, where 
the very heart of the worth and uses of wood is laid 
bare to the pupil. Every type of tree is studied and 
the possibilities of the usage of the wood illustrated. 
Here indeed the meaning of woodwork (that much- 

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belittled word in our English scheme of education) 
can be understood : what a mass of artistic and 
useful knowledge and work it comprises. Here was 
work from the most simple toy cut out with a knife 
by a child, to the elaborate, artistic articles for the 
home or the church. Decorative work of every de- 
scription ; designing from nature, leading on to the 
highest of the woodworkers' art, and sculpture of 
which we saw some powerful examples, such as figures 
of Dante, Samson, and the Christ. In chatting with 
the director, who, like so many of these heads of 
schools, museums, etc., in Austria, had studied well 
the work of other countries, whilst speaking of Eng- 
land he said, " Your drawing and painting are good, 
but you have no idea of house industry, and your poor 
have no idea of art ; here the poorest boy can see 
with an artistic eye, and utilise his seeing for the 
useful." 

It is a pretty walk across the fields from Villach to 
Warmbad, one of the most remarkable bathing resorts 
in Austria, lying in a scene of great beauty. One can 
drive, or use the railway that in a few minutes runs to 
the little station of Warmbad — Villach, as it is called. 
The little station itself is a beauty spot. Here one can 
sit on the platform amidst the flowers, with a glorious 
view around of snowy mountain peak, and green 
pasture meadows, fir forests and orchards. The 
station and waiting-rooms are absolutely clean, speck- 
less, and with most artistic pictures of the wonder 
nature scenes attainable in the district. A gong of 
a mellow tone tells of the coming of a train, but after 
the rush and hubbub is over, all is peace again, and 
the peaks of Mittagskogel and Tiirkenkopf rise up 

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Kustenland, Gorizia, and Carinthia 

majestically in the sunlight, over the plainland around ; 
and from the station a few minutes' walk through a 
pretty tree and flower-planted park leads to the 
bathing establishment of Warmbad, a series of 
handsome buildings in a lovely garden, with fountains 
and chestnut avenues leading away to mountain 
walks. 

The pure upland air, the scent of the pines and the 
flowers, the ripple and rush of the Gail Stream that 
flows at the foot of the hill, with numerous mountain 
streamlets rushing down to it, all give a delightful 
sense of calm, idyllic beauty, and the establishment 
adds all the delightful pleasures of cultured life. The 
baths were known to the Romans and also to 
Napoleon ; the height above the building is called 
Napoleon's Hohe. It is small wonder that these 
heights have ever been extolled. 

After a plunge or two in the crystal swimming-bath, 
I asked a doctor friend the meaning of the strengthen- 
ing, exhilarating effect, a " jump over the moon " 
type of feeling. I was told that a year or two ago 
they could not decide what caused this effect, in spite 
of many an analysis. But lately they had tested for 
radium, and found important radio-activity, and 
that probably was the cause of this exhilaration : at 
least it is there; and the bathing arrangements in 
this bath of many springs is a delightful experience. 
One feels whilst swimming the continual bubbling of 
the tepid, crystal, clear water, for, as the name 
denotes, the baths are warm. 

On the opposite side of the road, to the various 
houses of the establishment, there is, next the post- 
office, an inn for the peasants, that is an absolutely 

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Austria 

astounding lesson for Britishers. I was here once on 
a Whitmonday, and, perchance, few things can better 
illustrate the life of the people in their homelands in 
Austria, than a word upon the sights I saw on that 
day. 

The inn, with its garden, cafe, and restaurant is 
marvellously clean. In the garden are tables with 
coloured cloths upon them ; in the restaurant, of 
course, the cloths are white. The rooms are white, 
vaulted, with stencilled decorations. The walls are 
panelled and wainscoted with good woodwork ; the 
pillars are also panelled with pictures of youth and the 
seasons, and copies of the procession of Trade Guilds, 
from the paintings of Hans Makart, so that the work- 
men can see the glorification of their trades. Be- 
tween the pillars are boxes of greenery, ivy, etc., and 
this is trailed round the windows ; there are hat 
and coat pegs between the pillars, and all is spotlessly 
pure and clean, with flowers on the tables, and the 
tables set for meals have pink and white cloths. I 
went into the kitchens, and the copper utensils and 
everything was polished and pure, and the cooking 
was excellent. But I asked, " Is this for the peasants, 
all so prettily arranged ? " " Ah, yes," was the reply ; 
" they would not come here if it were not clean and 
well arranged." On this Whitmonday the garden 
was full of people, most of whom were doing walks 
in the mountains, and they stir themselves betimes ; 
at 9.30 I saw a young man and girl come in, of the 
poor, middle-class type, and have their lunch and light 
beer. They had walked over the mountains and it 
was midday to them. The smaller, older inns in 
Villach on the same day were also full of people in 

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Kiistenland, Gorizia, and Carinthia 

the evening, drinking light beer before starting 
homeward ; here the surroundings were not so good, 
but that such a place as that at Warmbad can be 
established and supported is an impressive lesson 
for us in England. And close by is a spacious swim- 
ming-bath for the poor. A grand bath with the 
mountains above one, and a rush of the crystal 
water over a rocky fall forms a douche in this tepid 
nature bath. The cost is only 20 heller (two pence), 
including clean bathing dress, and a large bath 
towel. 

The dress of the peasants in the district is full of 
colour and quaint effect. A pleasant surprise was 
arranged on the Napoleonshohe on a lovely day in 
June, when the sun was intensely hot. A party of 
English visitors were enticed in the hot sun up to this 
height, where a soft, green plateau, with many trees 
around it and brush-wood, was all that was visible, 
somewhat to the chagrin of the heated, tired guests, 
when suddenly there appeared from the bushes 
groups of young girls in the brilliant costumes bear- 
ing, in the Slav tongue, a Zakouska — " five o'clock 
tea " in English — only, all types of little delicacies 
were added to the tea. The dress of the young girls 
was a white head-dress with brilliant coloured neck- 
cloths, with rich needlework ; a jacket or vest of 
many colours, while the sleeves of the chemisette were 
spotless white ; the waist was encircled by a girdle 
of needlework of varied hues, and the very short, 
thickly pleated skirt of different tones came down 
to the knees, below which came very thick, fancy- 
knitted white stockings, with bright coloured garters 
and high laced boots. 

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Austria 

All were chatting in an unknown tongue, but it 
was whispered one was an English girl, whose tongue 
did not betray her, but her legs did, for they 
were of a slimmer build, in spite of the thick 
knitted stockings, than those of the sturdily-built 
local maidens. Such quaint surprises and almost 
operatic scenes as this can be met with at many 
a village festival or church holiday throughout 
these districts. 

There are scores of excursions and mountain climbs 
around Villach that, with Klagenfurth, the capital 
of Carinthia, form the two principal centres for 
mountaineers, fishing, or sport expeditions in the 
province. 

There is ample sport in spring, summer, and 
autumn in this district, and in the winter they 
boast of the longest and finest toboggan and ski 
runs in Europe, and the mountaineer can get most 
exciting and arduous climbs. Warmbad itself 
lies at the foot of the Dobratsch Mountain, that 
rises about 7000 feet above sea-level, and from 
Villach can be seen the whole range of the Kara- 
wanken Alps, and the Mangart group that rises to 
nearly 9000 feet. 

That it is not too hot here for pleasurable 
enjoyment of mountain excursions in summer, 
may be illustrated by a day spent on June 
9th in a little tour that gives a good insight 
into the strangely wild romantic scenery of the 
province. 

Travelling first to Tarvis over a lovely country 
with rich meadows and wooded hills, with a fine view 
of the Mittagskogel, following in part the valley of the 

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Kiistenland, Gorizia, and Carinthia 

Gail that rushes turbulently onward to the Drave, 
we are just on the frontier of Carinthia and Carniola ; 
and as we journey on we get lovely peeps between the 
pines of the Mangart Mountains, and beyond the 
serrated broken-up peaks of the Raible Dolomites. 
A magnificent scene, the great crags and towering 
peaks and snowy clefts, and below the green uplands 
and dark fir forests. 

We arrive at Weissenfels, a little smoky, iron, 
industrial town, but in a few moments we climb above 
the smoke of the works, that lie in a close little valley, 
and we follow up a mountain stream, a glorious 
stream, rushing and tumbling and foaming valley- 
wards, and are soon at the Weissenfels Lake, with its 
great falls, and water of a most delicate green, varying 
to a deeper hue. Above towers up the majestic 
Mangart, almost perpendicular, to the height of nearly 
9000 feet. A soft mist lies in the peaks, and cool, 
pure snow rests between them. Another ten minutes' 
walk and we reach the Oberessee, or Upper Lake, 
a tiny, quiet lake of an emerald green ; low down 
around it are the soft, dark woods and fresh, green 
pines in shadow, and above in brilliant sunlight the 
sharp, grey rocks rising up to the mist, and far above 
in the deep blue sky. 

This scene is really in Carniola ; the two provinces 
have so much in common in their lake and mountain 
scenery, and in their people. 

The capital of the province of Carinthia is Klagen- 
furth, a fine old town lying on a level upland, nearly 
1500 feet above sea-level, having a glorious view of the 
Karawanken chain of mountains ; a pleasant place 
to halt in, with, as everywhere in Austria, a good 

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Austria 

museum and opportunity for historical studies, that 
we cannot always obtain in English provincial towns 
of 25,000 inhabitants. 

Here is placed the Diet chamber of the province, 
and the tree- shaded open spaces make it an agreeable 
resort whence to sally forth and explore Carinthia. 
The educationist will visit the well-equipped agri- 
cultural and mining schools. 

It is but a short distance from Klagenfurth, by 
carriage or tramway, to that gem of the province of 
Carinthia, the Worther See, and we are near also that 
rocky defile with its waterfalls known as the Rotwein 
Klamm, whence came the peasant singers we heard 
at Veldes in Carniola. 

In both these provinces music abounds, and here 
on the softly beautiful lake, the Worther See, we heard 
a men's choir, who sang the expressive and passionate 
Carinthian folk-songs, that sounded marvellously 
sweet and beautiful as the harmonies floated over 
the mirror-like waters of the lake. Much of 
their music is not published ; it is local work, and 
like so much of the best work done in Austria, in 
music, science, literature and art, the authors of 
really great work seem content with local fame, 
and there is often a deep reverence shown locally 
for the author or artists who deal with local subjects, 
and idealise and elevate local legend and history. 
Here in music the name of Thomas Koschat is 
revered, as one who has done much for the Carinthian 
folk-music. 

The little isle of Maria Worth, in the midst of 
the lake, adds to the charm of the scene of lake and 
green pasture-land, forest and surrounding mountains 

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Kustenland, Gorizia, and Carinthia 

rising into the varied cloud forms that veil their 
summits. 

There seems a jovial light-heartedness and joy of 
living in the dwellers on the lake, and a story is told 
of the priest on the island of Maria Worth who laughed 
so loud he could be heard on the other side of the lake. 
A party would leave one behind to tell a story, and 
then row across the lake, and it was soon known when 
the story was told, by the hearty laugh coining across 
the water. 

Steamboats ply on the lake that is eleven miles 
long, and there are many pleasant resorts on its 
shores, one of the favourite ones being Portschach, 
where the Wahliss establishment and its pretty park, 
with lovely views, is a most popular resort. Here 
can be heard the local part-songs and excellent 
orchestral music, and the music lover, especially 
of folk-songs, will be carried away by the fire and 
enthusiasm and pathos thrown into the fine part- 
songs of Carinthia, and the work of Koschat sung 
by patriotic enthusiasts with excellent voices and 
good expression. 

The mountaineer and sportsman can have plenty 
of sport in Carinthia ; red buck, and other deer, 
chamois, ibex, hares, pheasants, partridges, wild duck, 
are amongst the game. The King of Saxony has a 
shooting estate here, and the rivers, the Gail and the 
Drave, and the lesser streams and lakes, give ample 
sport to the fisherman. 

Carinthia has within its borders a stretch of the 
most beautiful part of that great engineering achieve- 
ment that has opened up a new delight to European 
travellers — the Tauern Railway. In journeying 

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Austria 

from Opcina to Villach, through the Kiisten- 
land and Gorizia, we have seen some of it, the 
Karawanken section, and now we shall traverse 
Carinthia from south to north, from Villach to the 
Tauern Mountains, that give this part of the railway 
its name. 



192 



CHAPTER XX 

THE TAUERN RAILWAY TO BAD GASTEIN 

THE southern portion of the new line of 
the Tauern Railway, known as the Kara- 
wanken Railways that we have traversed 
in travelling northward from Triest, passes 
through country and scenery that is strangely full of 
nature wonders. The exquisite colour that delights 
the eye in the rushing mountain streams, and the 
southern flora, has by the time we reach Villach 
undergone a great change ; in piercing the vast mass 
of the Karawanken Alps, between Assling and Rosen- 
bach, before we reach Villach, we leave the southern 
languid air and warm tones of colour, but by no means 
quit the strange beauty by which this line fascinates 
the traveller at every mile along its route. 

Geographically the line shortens the distance from 
Central Europe to the Adriatic by some 250 kilometres ; 
politically it is said to be linking up the German 
population of Bavaria and those dwelling in the partly 
Slav provinces of Carinthia and Carniola. German 
excursions from this district to Munich are arranged ; 
on one occasion a thousand went from Villach alone 
on such an excursion. 

To the ordinary traveller the line has opened up a 

country full of strange delights, hitherto difficult to 

approach, and the impetus given to the development 

of the towns on the route has been most remarkable. 

n 193 



Austria 

At Spittal, where hitherto had been the old type of 
comfortable hostelry, at once were built three large, 
palatial hotels, so confident are the people of the 
charm and wonder of the surrounding lake and 
mountain scenery ; and the whole district is full of 
life and development. 

Amidst this life on its outskirts, the old town itself 
is still very quaint. It lies on a deep plain surrounded 
with snowy peaks, and in its centre rises the great 
square mass of its castle, in a pretty park and garden, 
the residence for centuries of the Princes of Porcia. 
The walls of the castle are decorated with illustra- 
tions in gesso work, and plaques of various princes 
of this family, that claims a very ancient descent. 
In the centre court around which the castle rises 
in three tiers of Renaissance arcading, enriched with 
medallions, there are the arms of Portia and Porcia, 
" ex sanguine Regum Troianorum et Sicambroium 
progenitus." But alas, all this long line of descent 
has fallen on evil days, and the castle is decaying. 
All was silent as I stood in this court. A bell in beaten 
iron was there to summon the retainers and varlets in 
attendance, but the cord was broken. On the north 
side of the castle were frescoes in colour, of cupids, 
and illustrations of hunting and fencing, and above, 
in black and white, knights and bishops ; one name I 
could read was Sylvius of Padua. In the garden were 
some palms, but stunted by the northern air, and 
above the avenues of trees rose up the snow-flecked 
mountains, but the only life in the gardens were the 
birds, all else seemed dead, and only echoed the note 
that emperors had stayed here, and also Wallenstein. 
It was pleasant to go back again into the little town, 

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The Tauern Railway to Bad Gastein 

through the old gateway, and down the hill past an 
old house with illustrating gesso work and dial, to the 
bridge that spans the swift flowing Lieser. The 
church is a very fine fourteenth-century building, and 
the fine-toned bells struck out for the midday hour 
as we looked at the most interesting monuments that 
are around its outside walls. 

The larger river upon which Spittal stands is the 
Drave or Drau, that joins the Danube at Belgrade ; 
and but 13 kilometres distant is the picturesque 
Millstatt on the lake of the same name, a most 
lovely little town lying on a promontory that juts out 
into the lake, with a wealth of lake, and mountain, 
and forest-gorge excursions, all around it. 

Soon after quitting Spittal we leave the old rail 
of the Sudbahn that leads over the Brenner to 
Innsbruck, an old engineering marvel, and enter upon 
this new link with the north ; at Miihldorf we are 
amidst trees, rich fields, and pasture slopes, dotted 
with grey, shingle-roofed houses amidst fruit orchards. 
The peasantry still stare and wave hands to this new 
thing in their fives. We soon begin to climb up to a 
different vegetation. 

This Tauern Railway is by no means one upon 
which a quiet settling in a corner with a book or paper 
is likely to satisfy any traveller. The corridors of the 
train are filled with eager sightseers, to catch the 
romantic glimpses of castle and valley, waterfall and 
dizzy viaduct ; and one good hint is to travel first- 
class, but take a slow train, then one can have a 
carriage to oneself, and move from side to side as the 
train moves onward. 

It is interesting to note the heavy timber barri- 

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Austria 

cades on the mountain sides as a protection against 
avalanches, and the strong stone block-houses for the 
guardians of the line, and the stone zigzags up the 
banks to prevent landslides. And when one looks at 
the powerful engines that are attached for the work of 
these gradients, and then at a slight fairy-like viaduct, 
one feels an awesome dread lest we go crashing into 
the valley, far, far beneath. 

From Miihldorf we climb slowly up past the deep 
Klinzerschlucht or ravine, with a peep at a pretty 
castle, and slowly and laboriously we attain Kolbnitz, 
from whence some very delightful excursions can be 
made, especially to the Danielsberg. As we ascend 
higher the changes of vegetation are very remarkable ; 
here, in the late spring, are racing, spuming, white- 
foamed streams rushing down to the valleys ; the 
snow peaks are all around, but the lower slopes are all 
parti-coloured with flowers. As we go on, ever up- 
ward, the scene changes to more terrific grandeur, 
and at Penk we look far down on the Mollthal. We 
flash in and out of the tunnels, and get peeps of most 
romantic mediaeval castles perched on rocky peaks, 
and then wide vistas down into valleys. One glorious 
view is down into the Mollthal, with the isolated 
basaltic-like peak, the Danielsberg, upon the summit 
of which a temple to Hercules formerly stood. Here 
is a most beautiful view. The peep down into the 
valley of the Moll, with the castle of Unterfalkenstein, 
gives a wondrous masterpiece of Nature's composition. 

Another romantic spot is on the viaduct that leads 
to the tunnel that pierces below the great mass of 
rock on which stands the wide, massive ruins of 
Oberfalkenstein. It is in this district that great 

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The Tauern Railway to Bad Gastein 

engineering feats of overcoming difficulties were carried 
out. Viaduct after viaduct, then galleries, then 
tunnels ; every type of obstacle was encountered and 
overcome. The engines used upon these lines, and 
upon other of the mountain railways of Austria, are 
big, powerful machines, full of ingenuity and modern 
development, and excite the admiration of the 
engineering expert. 

A pleasant halting-spot is Obervellach, lying in a 
rich upland valley, with innumerable opportunities 
for excursions, and comfortable inns to which to 
return. The church is of interest to the lover of 
Gothic work, and the altarpiece is an example of the 
Dutch master Jan Scorel of the early sixteenth century. 
Not far off is the castle of Groppenstein, with its two 
square towers and embattled walls, that with its 
surrounding wall and outlying towers, perched on the 
high-wooded rock, forms so picturesque a scene from 
the railway. 

Between this little town and Mallnitz we pass in a 
valley the electric works that drive the fans for the 
air in the Tauern tunnel that we are nearing. 

Mallnitz is only a widely scattered village with a 
quiet beauty around it, contrasting with what we have 
traversed, and with what we shall see as we travel 
onward ; but all around the valley loom up the grey 
crags and snowy peaks far above the dark pines. 

Now we soon enter the tunnel that opened in 
1909, pierces the Tauern Alps and, gave freer access 
to these picturesque scenes. 

It is about five miles in length, and the line ascends 
to the height of about 4000 feet. By the express 
trains the time in the tunnel is only about ten minutes. 

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Austria 

Before entering from this south side the view is very 
imposing. The snow peaks and glaciers, with, on 
the left hand, the wide valley, and river and streams, 
all form a glorious picture ere we dive into the dark- 
ness, and as we issue, again is there a glorious 
picture ; now, on the right, are the rocky snow peaks 
and white glaciers, with rushing waterfalls on all 
sides as we halt at the station of Bockstein, beneath 
the lofty mountain mass of the Hohe Tauern, that 
forms the boundary of Carinthia and the Duchy of 
Salzburg. We descend the pass, noting the heavy 
work to prevent mountain slides, and enter the beauti- 
ful Bockstein valley, wherein lies the picturesquely 
placed little town of Bockstein, within an easy walk of 
Bad Gastein, the famous health resort. 

There are several hotels and a Kurhaus at Bock- 
stein ; mountaineers and nature lovers may prefer 
exploring the district from here instead of from 
Gastein. 



198 




*v~-< 



MAI.l.M IX 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE TAUERN RAILWAY TO SALZBURG 

IN the Duchy of Salzburg we are in a territory 
that has been known to English travellers for 
centuries, the capital Salzburg, early in the 
eighth century, had already its bishop, and was 
raised to an Archbishopric in 798 by Charlemagne. 
But the latest development in this Duchy of the 
twentieth century,the Tauern Railway, has opened to 
English travellers districts of natural beauty hitherto 
unknown to them, and made easy of access spots 
that before were only reached on foot or by driving. 

As we have seen, Dame Nature has been effusively 
lavish in every division of Austria, almost squandering 
her glories and beauties with apparently reckless 
profusion. But she has not in other homelands of 
Austria exhausted her power of exciting wonder and 
surprise, and here, at Bad Gastein, as we enter the 
little station, is a scene, even at its door, of quiet, ex- 
quisite beauty. From a little height above the station 
road is a fine prospect looking up the Bockstein 
valley, and within a minute or two we are far from 
all hint of railways, and amidst flowers, and mosses, 
and leaping brooklets, and tiny waterfalls, in the pure, 
mountain air. 

The town of Wildbad Gastein persistently re- 
minded me of the little town of Lynmouth in Devon- 
shire; but here everything is upon a gigantic scale. 

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Austria 

The little brawling, snow-white falls of the Lyn are 
multiplied a hundred times, nay more, enlarged into 
the thundering, foaming, terrific falls of the Ache, 
that leap down betwixt the narrow, rocky gorge in 
two mighty falls, one of 200, the other of nearly 300 
feet, threatening to overwhelm the villas and hotels 
that are perched and dotted on rocks and every avail- 
able plot of level space. 

Between the two falls is the bridge with the covered 
way, to protect the passers from the spray clouds 
that arise in steam-like vapour, and it is a fairy-like 
yet titanic scene to stand near these ceaselessly roar- 
ing waters and watch them lit up by the coloured 
light thrown upon them. They are veritably alive, 
smoking, foaming, thundering and hurtling onward, 
rushing downward to the valley. 

In the church of Gastein is a picture of the legend 
of the origin of the Spa, the stag finding the water. 

Until this new railway was open, the Gastein valley 
and this noted Spa was only reached by a drive of 
three or four hours from Lend, but now the station is 
on the outskirts of the town. 

In former days Bad Gastein was widely known 
from the fact that it was the favourite health resort 
of the Iron Chancellor, a fact that is commemorated 
on his residence the Schwaigerhaus, whereon is in- 
scribed : 

Furst Bismarck 

wohnte in den jahren 

1877, 1878, 1879, 1883, 1886, 

IN DIESEM HAUSE. 

A delightfully beautiful spot he chose for a peaceful 
retreat from the fierce turmoil of his iron life, and yet 

200 



The Tauern Railway to Salzburg 

with a reminder of the tumultous in Nature and man, 
in the ever thundering, passionate force of the rest- 
less falls of the Ache. 

One of the best of the many walks in and around 
Bad Gastein is that known as the Kaiser Promenade, 
leading to the right up above the church over a little 
wooden bridge with a veritable little bit of Lynmouth 
around one. Not far on is a bust of Kaiser William I. 
with seats around it, and a pleasant garden with the 
now distant music of the falls still in the ear. The 
idle promenade of the lounger can be turned into a 
brisk walk by continuing on to the Schwarzen Liesl 
Cafe and Kaiser Wilhelm Institute — a pleasant climb ; 
and at the cafe is a superb view of the whole Gastein 
valley to the smaller, older town of Hof Gastein. 
High up, half hid in mist, tower the snowy peaks that 
shut in the valley, along which wind river and road, 
and dotted here and there in the green pastures are the 
grey chalets and white houses ; this view is to the 
north, whilst to the west are yet higher peaks and the 
Schareck Glacier. The resort, the Schwarze Liesl, takes 
its name from the favourite hostess of years ago. 
Now the place is a retreat for old warriors who are 
invalided, but the cafe is still a favourite resort for 
the public. 

Gastein is the starting-point for a score of 
expeditions, either easy walks or arduous climbs 
up to 10,000 feet ; the Schareck and the Sonnblick 
are about this height. The latter is perhaps best 
ascended from Mallnitz in ten hours ; it is interesting 
as being the highest meteorological station of the first 
class in Europe, and the ascent is easily made. 

But from our halting-place at Liesl's we will get 

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Austria 

slowly and pleasantly back to Gastein, along the sweet 
pine-scented road, with pretty peeps of snow peaks 
between the dark pines. Even our own footfalls are 
hushed on the fallen spines of the trees, and do not 
disturb the song of the birds. At a hamlet we get 
a view down to the little town of palaces below, and 
the great white falls rushing between them, and then 
we pass on to the Hohebriicke over the great fall ; a 
lad who comes up calls it the Schrecks or Fearsome 
Bridge, and truly fearsome is the mighty leap of the 
vast mass of rushing, thundering waters ; and from 
this bridge a steep path can be taken, that leads 
close down by the great fall that deafens with its 
thunder. 

Another easy walk but a healthful climb is to the 
Windischgratz height, but the walks around are in- 
numerable, and the limited space for promenade where 
the band plays in the town is thus compensated. 

The waters are pleasant drinking, and together with 
the baths, that are well arranged in the hotels, are good 
for nerve diseases, rheumatism, and kidney, and other 
complaints ; their radio-activity is very great. The 
promenade salon, a covered promenade with reading 
and other rooms, makes a pleasant resort in bad 
weather, and from it the falls and their ceaseless play 
can be watched, or the light effects studied when 
they are illuminated. But perhaps the exhilarating 
properties of the air, and the endless opportunities 
for excursions, great or small, makes Wildbad Gastein 
the health resort that it certainly is. 

In quitting this mountain paradise we resume 
the route of the Tauern railway, and run along a 
mountain ledge the whole length of the Gastein 

202 



The Tauern Railway to Salzburg 

valley. The town we have just left looks like a scene 
on the stage, backed with pines and snowy peaks and 
feathery waterfalls. We begin to descend and cross 
the great bridge, the Angerbriicke, which is nearly 
300 feet high and more than 300 feet wide. The scene 
is fearfully grand where the torrent bursts through the 
rocky cliffs, and rushes forcefully on. 

We halt above the town of Hof-Gastein, the little 
town with its black, red, and grey roofs, and tall church 
spire, lying under the hills ; the soft tone of the cow 
bells ascend in the still air, and tell of the principal 
occupation of the dwellers in the valley. As we slowly 
descend, the scene is ever changing and full of strange, 
wild beauty. Tunnel, and bridge, and viaduct lead 
us on downwards. At Klammstein, in the deep gorge 
or Klamm, there is a chill air, and brooks from all 
sides come leaping down in white cascades. Over 
the torrent of the Ache rise the bare, rocky snow peaks. 
We pass the Swiss-like grey chalets, with heavy stones 
on the roofs ; on the rich green uplands the river gets 
wider, and beyond Mursangerbach we see the old road 
far below, beside the river, slowly, slowly climbing 
upwards, with a carpet of flowers and rich vegetation 
on either hand. Onward we go, ever descending, 
crossing torrents and viaducts, increasingly excited by 
the vast variety of strange, beauteous nature, until 
we join in with the old Salzburg railway, and are soon 
at the beautifully placed station of Schwarzach St 
Veit, in the rich upland valley, above which peep 
the snow peaks and through which runs the river 
Salzach. The little town of Schwarzach has quite 
enough interest to beguile an hour or two during a halt. 
The scene along the banks of the river interests, and 

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Austria 

the old church that is linked with the famous fighting 
Schwarzenbergers, whose castles we saw in Bohemia, 
especially at Krumau (Krumlov), calls up the past. 
Whilst halting here one day for a train connection 
we strolled up above the church to the little cemetery, 
where the nuns or sisters of the convent adjoining the 
church are buried ; and whilst I was alone, pondering 
amidst the simple graves, and looking round at the 
lovely scenes of mountain and upland, a sister 
appeared, and with silent, loving care sprinkled holy 
water on the graves of those sisters lying peacefully 
below. In the calm evening light, with the soft 
pink hues just flushing the distant snow peaks, this 
pious action seemed so tenderly loving, and so in 
keeping with all nature around ; the dead and their 
deeds were remembered, and nature in it's young 
forces told of new life and fresh energy sprung from 
the seed of death ; and so I stole quietly away, soon 
to be again rushing towards Salzburg. 

We are now on a part of the road that is well 
known, but still a road of a beauty that never tires. 
Especially at St Johann im Pongau is there a great view 
around of the rocky peaks and pinnacles, snow swept, 
and yet here and there snow flecked ; the eyes seemed 
glutted with beauty all through this district, and yet 
the mind is not satiated. Below the peaks are the 
dark pine-clad heights, and at their feet the swift grey 
river ever rushing onward, and St Johann makes a 
pleasant halting-place for mountain expeditions or 
less adventurous excursions. 

The scene increases in almost theatrical effects as 
we near Salzburg and skirt around the massive block 
of the Untersberg, with a splendid view of the great 

204 



The Tauern Railway to Salzburg 

citadel of Salzburg on its high rocky plateau. If 
this approach is made at sunset, often the upper 
snow-covered peaks are suffused in the deep red of the 
Alpine glow, and the scene is surpassingly beautiful, 
and Salzburg seems to promise a strange charm and 
glamour — a promise that its history and associations 
and wondrous setting soon fulfils. 



205 



CHAPTER XXII 

SALZBURG AND THE SALZKAMMERGUT 

THERE is a passage in the Studio volume 
on the Peasant Art of Austria that says, 
" Unfortunately there is no open - air 
museum in Austria where we can wander 
at will and form a complete picture of how the 
peasants lived in the past, or how some of them live 
at the present time." But in Austria we have some- 
thing better ; we can still go in the villages and see 
the life of the peasants, preserving, in some places, 
all their brilliant costumes, their ceremonies, and their 
superstitions, their old-world, at least mediaeval, life, 
and then presto ! we are in a scientifically equipped 
technical school, or a well-managed agricultural or 
forestry museum, and see these same peasants 
studying the latest science of their daily work. 

Nowhere more heartily entered into and enjoyed 
is the music, song, and dance of the peasants in their 
picturesque costume than in the Salzkammergut, 
and on fete days these peasants come into the capital, 
and under the shadow of the grim old fortress, and 
vast church buildings that speak so eloquently of 
former fierce power, the peasant is as jovial to-day, 
and as picturesquely artistic, as he was when rack and 
dungeon threatened him with torture and doom. 

On one occasion we heard in Salzburg, from a local 
choir in their local costume, some excellent music, and 

206 



Salzburg and the Salzkammergut 

one of the performers on the xylophone was an old 
lady of about eighty, who was an intense enthusiast, 
and a wonderfully vivacious performer on that curious 
instrument. After the music came dancing, entered 
into with a verve and joviality that was contagious, 
proving how the joy of life is retained by this love of 
music and dance, and old patriotic customs. 

The population of the province of Salzburg is 
almost wholly German, the folk of other races number- 
ing only about a thousand, and the religion is 
almost wholly that of the Roman church, having 
had its bishopric over a thousand years. 

The city, like so many cathedral cities, is a quiet 
old - world town, but singularly interesting, both 
from its situation and from the wealth of old 
buildings that are left in and around it, in spite 
of the fact that so much has been lost through fire. 

A good spot to take a first survey of the lower 
town is upon the bridge that spans the swift-flowing 
Salzach. From this bridge the old narrow streets 
that cluster under the great rock which towers above 
cathedral and palatial buildings can be seen winding 
their way up to the great fortress of Higher Salzburg 
that crowns the rock, and here in the lower town is 
much to hold the visitor. There is one name that 
stands out above warrior and ecclesiastic, the name 
of Mozart. The house where the great musician, the 
marvellous boy-composer, was born, and the museum 
that contains the MSS. of those compositions so mar- 
vellous in a child, MSS. of his later works, his instru- 
ments, portraits, and other objects connected with his 
wonderful career, that had so sad an ending, are all 
of intense and pathetic interest. But when they 

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Austria 

show you the poet's skull, a feeling of horror comes 
over one ; it is too pitiable to see this poor bone 
that once held the brilliant brain that produced such 
glorious work handled, and placed here for show. 
Bury it ! put it reverently away ! is the exclama- 
tion and earnest prayer that at once comes to the 
mind and to the lips. 

The quaint old courts and squares around the 
cathedral, and the palatial residences of the princes 
of the State and the Church, give many a fine archi- 
tectural study; but one of the most quaint and 
antique bits of Salzburg is the churchyard of St Peter, 
said to date from the period of the earliest bishops 
of Salzburg ; the graves, following the eastern custom, 
are hewn out of the rock, and each grave has its own 
holy water stoup. In the church near by are curious 
carvings of the Adoration of the Magi and the 
Resurrection, the Roman soldiers bearing cross-bows. 
All around there is much of interest, both archi- 
tectural, monumental, and historical. 

This churchyard is near the winding path that 
ascends to the summit of Higher Salzburg, and al- 
though now there is a lift, yet the slow walk up, 
with the gradual opening out of very varied views, is 
well worth doing. 

There is a fine view from the Festungs Gate. Over 
each gate are figures of bishops and coats of arms. 
From the plateau on the summit the view on all sides 
is superb. The low-lying plain is shut in by mountains 
some snow-capped, others of bare grey rock, whilst 
lower down the heights are dark with pines. To the 
west the plain stretches away in the distance, dotted 
with white villages and castles amidst the varying 

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Salzburg and the Salzkammergut 

foliage and bright green pasture meadows, through 
which wind the grey waters of the Salzach. 

On the north side immediately below lies the old 
town, with its domes and spires, and red-roofed and 
white buildings, the view being shut in by the dark 
wooded slope of the Capuzinerberg. Away to the 
south the plain at the foot of the mountains is 
varied by charming tiny lakes, with dark woods 
around them, dotted with country houses. 

One of the principal of the mountains that rise 
over the plain-land is the vast mass of the Untersberg, 
beneath which Charlemagne is said to be lying, 
waiting for a united Germany once again to arise 
and rule. The cloud effects on the mountains are 
nearly always beautiful, sometimes the Untersberg 
will be veiled in mist, whilst the height of the Hohe 
Goll stands out clearly in the sunshine like a white, 
soft cloud in its pure snow mantle. 

The interior of the castle is well worth a visit if 
only to recall all the brilliant scenes that have been, 
enacted here. Some of the rooms date from 1501 
The little library is very quaint, with the old paintings 
and bookshelves. 

The chapel of St George has over its door some 
good carvings of St Christopher and Archbishop 
Leonard, who died in 1519. 

There are many places of public resort in and 
around Salzburg, two favourites being the heights 
of the Monchberg and the Capuzinerberg ; this 
latter is over 2000 feet above sea level, and in 
the garden is the little house of Mozart, brought 
from Vienna, in which he wrote the Zauberflote. 
From here a lovely walk leads through the woods ; 

O 20Q 



Austria 

all is so softly calm, but there comes up from the 
town the rich boom of the church bells into these 
silent woods ; then we reach an Aussicht, and, as 
from the fortress, the views are extremely lovely and 
strangely diversified. Another newer point that a 
cog railway has made easily accessible is the summit 
of the Gaisberg that is over 4000 feet above sea level, 
and whence the view is most extensive. 

After looking upon all these great marvels of nature, 
it is a strange thing to go out into the well-kept 
Stadtpark, and just beyond to visit the Mirabelle 
Castle, where the ingenuity of man has been exercised 
in a strange fashion, in building a house and gardens 
for the amusement of a mistress of Cardinal Wolf 
Dietrich in 1606. The gardens are full of quaint 
devices, such as one sees in the Pallavicini gardens 
near Genoa, or in the grounds of Linderhof, one of 
the palaces of King Ludwig II. of Bavaria. Here are 
surprise fountains that drench the unwary spectator, 
mechanical working and moving toys of a most 
elaborate type, grottos, caves, and statuary, with a 
lovely lake and pretty gardens, and the views around 
of the town and mountains are full of beauty. 

There is history and tragedy, romance and beauty 
enough, clinging to and around Salzburg to hold one 
for many a day ; set, as Salzburg is, in the midst of a 
land that is teeming with natural beauty, embodying 
very diversified scenes. One of the most picturesque 
and charming little lakes is that of the Zeller See, 
that lies south of Salzburg, and can be visited on 
travelling from that town to Innsbruck. Here we 
get a view of various chains of mountains including 
the Tauern, and all around the lake are dotted pretty 

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Salzburg and the Salzkammergut 

villas in pretty gardens, and the little steamer makes 
it very easy to get to all the parts of the lake for 
mountain excursions, of which there is a veritable 
plethora from which to choose. Bathing, boating, 
and fishing, and in winter, skating, and all kinds of 
sport can be enjoyed here, and the climber has a very 
wide selection of varied heights. 



211 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE SALZKAMMERGUT 

THE curious title of this district has become 
a word that calls up visions of a strange 
beauty of lake scenery, but really it is a 
historic name with great meaning. It is 
the territory or property of the Chamber governing the 
salt industry ; and of the value of this industry we 
have had a glimpse when we were at Prachatic, the 
quaint old town in Southern Bohemia that was on 
the salt path from Bavaria into Bohemia, in which 
country there is no salt. We are in this territory 
not far from the frontier of Bavaria, and the district 
now known as the Salzkammergut includes portions 
of Upper Austria. The Crownland we shall traverse 
in descending the Danube, and also a part of Styria 
(Steiermark). The absurd custom of giving the 
name " Swiss " to any district that has lakes and 
mountains, and, as in England, to districts that 
have hills a few hundred feet high, might well 
become obsolete. 

We have Saxon Switzerland, Bohemian Switzer- 
land, valleys in England with hills, 150 feet 
high called Swiss valleys, and here an attempt is 
made to call this lovely gem of Austrian homeland 
Austrian Switzerland, whereas colour and form are 
very different to the Swiss lake scenery, and to 
many eyes the beauty is more varied, more gem- 

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The Salzkammergut 

like in colour and form, although not so colossal 
in shape or height. Each country has its own 
peculiar beauty, and the distinctive national 
name should be given to distinctive national 
beauty. 

Here the name of the Salzkammergut lakes recalls at 
once, to those who know them, a vision of marvellous 
beauty. In leaving Salzburg for a tour in this 
artist's paradise we are quickly in the midst of the 
lake and mountain scenery. The great barrier of 
the Drachenwand rises up, and then after Plomberg 
we come upon the idyllic Mondsee, with green woods 
and the sun throwing beams of gold upon the low 
pasture-land, recalling in some measure Loch Lomond 
in Scotland ; then we see the little Eglsee, a lake 
of dark, slate-blue hue, succeeded as we travel on, by 
exquisite peeps of the Grottensee, the colour of which 
is reflected from the woods that surround it. At 
all these spots one would fain halt, so tempting are 
the walks and the little hotels dotted along the 
lakes; but we journey on to St Gilgen that lies so 
peacefully at the head of the lake Aber, or St 
Wolfgang. The lake is of a lovely blue, and the 
houses amidst the foliage are dominated by the 
tall, white church tower rising to its red dome and 
little spire. 

The view down the lake is gentle and peaceful, 
the wilder rocky crags being distant, and the lower 
slopes wooded and green with trees and pasture. 
White sails float over the lake, and there is ample 
pleasure on its waters for lovers of sailing or rowing, 
fishing or bathing, and the lake steamers quickly run 
to many a beauty spot by its waters. The colour of 

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the water changes according to the surroundings and 
the tone of the sky, sometimes being of a clear delicate 
emerald. 

Even here in this, to English ideas, remote spot, 
the system of Austrian education helps the clever but 
poor scholar ; for on the height above Falkenstein 
Ried, on the opposite shore to St Gilgen, is a 
summer-holiday resort for the needy pupils of 
the Vienna Gymnasiums and Real Schools, giving 
them a vigorous, hearty holiday, with mountain 
expeditions, and genial sallies amidst these lovely 
surroundings. 

We are close to the principal market town of the 
lake, St Wolfgang, and in journeying thither by the 
boat, we pass a rather curious thing upon a lake, the 
tall lighthouse tower, an old square building, with an 
octagonal tower, with embattled summit, standing 
proudly as a sea lighthouse, at the mouth of a frontier 
river, but here it is only the little Dittelbach that 
comes down from the Schafberg. If the track of this 
stream is followed up, a pleasant climb leads to 
some fine waterfalls. 

The little town is so delightfully placed, and is so 
picturesque in itself, that it makes a most pleasant 
halting spot, and the peasantry are a kind, jovial, 
free folk ; preserving their old customs, loving music 
and dancing, and holding their mountain traditions 
in reverence. Their dress is much of the serviceable 
Tyrolean type, the men, as the women, loving colour. 
The dress is suitable for their mountain work, and 
the men look stalwart, sturdy fellows in their round 
hats with a feather, their short jackets, and tight 
breeches and strong boots. 

214 




Ml INDSEE 



The Salzkammergut 

The hostelries are good, and one gets personal 
service. The chief historical monument in the town 
of St Wolfgang is the church, with its tall, square 
tower and arcaded court around it, through the 
arches of which such exquisite pictures of lake and 
mountain are framed. Here also is the well of St 
Wolfgang, with a statue of the saint, and this quaint 
inscription, the spelling of which is very curious and 
phonetic. 

" Ich pin zu den Eren Sanct Wolfgang gemacht, 
Abt Wolfgang Haberl zu mannsee hat mich betracht, 
zu nutz und zu frumm der armen piligrumb, die nit 
haben Geld umb zu kaufen Wein, dye sollen pei diesen 
Wasser frellich seyn. Anno den 1515 jar ist das werk 
volpraht, Gott sey gelobt." 

Within the church is the famous carved altar- 
piece by Michael Pacher, a veritable triumph of the 
sculptor's art, of the year 1481. The central group 
represents God the Father enthroned ; before Him 
is kneeling the Virgin Mary, and above soars the 
Holy Spirit in dovelike form. The delicate tracery 
of the Baldachins over these principal figures and 
over the side figures of St Wolfgang and St 
Benedict is most artistic in treatment and design, 
and every detail of the subordinate work shows 
intense loving care in its execution. The whole of 
this altar-piece, both before and behind, in paint- 
in<r and in sculpture, is full of beauty and historic 

value. 

Various relics of St Wolfgang, who, in the tenth 
century, was Bishop of Regensburg, are preserved 
here; his cell has been enclosed in marble, and 
around it is built a chapel in Renaissance style, and 

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Austria 

this chapel is a great resort of pilgrims, who pray 
here and get small medals and diminutive hatchets 
blessed by touching with them the Chalice used 
by St Wolfgang ; this is preserved in the Sacristy. 
The hatchet has become the insignia of the 
place. Little rosettes decked with silver hatchets 
are given or sold to visitors. The legend is that 
St Wolfgang threw his hatchet from the top of 
the Falkenstein, the mountain we passed by the 
lakeside, and it fell where the church now stands, 
and is walled up in the central altar. A very early 
but good example of throwing the hatchet ! But 
St Wolfgang is also the defensive patron against 
fire and hail, two great enemies of the peasants' 
crops and homes in their mountain districts. Viktor 
von SchefM brings the Wolfgang pilgrimage into one 
of his religious songs. 

If St Wolfgang for a thousand years has attracted 
pilgrims to his shrine, to-day another marvel is 
drawing vast numbers to this lovely spot — a nature 
and science marvel — the mighty Gibraltar-like cliff 
of the Schafberg, rising precipitously to the height 
of nearly 6000 feet. This is ascended by the tooth 
railway that, alas ! does away for so many with the 
healthful climb, with its halts for the beautiful out- 
looks betwixt the pines. By the mountain railway 
also, the peeps to be had as we ascend are strangely 
lovely. At first we ascend through fruit orchards, 
then we come to the pines, and, as we rise higher and 
higher we get peeps of strange beauty. Lakes lie 
below like gems of turquoise or emerald ; others are 
of a deep green, or of a cobalt blue ; and as we still 
ascend we reach the snow — pure patches lie here and 

216 



The Salzkammergut 

there by the side of the rail. At the upper station 
we are in winter ; snow lies all around ; we have a 
little walk to reach the peak's summit, and then a 
vast and glorious panorama is around and beneath us, 
with a wonderful effect of changing light. Vast 
ranges and peaks of mountains, all snow-clad ; to the 
east and north those jewel gems of lakes. Well may 
they say this Schafberg is the pearl of the Salz- 
kammergut. Away to the south-west rises the great 
Untersberg, and to the north is a vast plain, and far, 
far away rise up the dark lines of the Bohemian forest, 
beyond the Danube. 

On all sides is a scene of exquisite and 
marvellous beautj\ The sun lights up vast ranges 
of peaks and ridges, glittering with snow ; 
each detail is a beauty, and the whole holds one 
spellbound. 

Here on this height in the crystalline snow grow 
Alpine flowers that are eagerly picked, and often 
unwittingly terrible risks are incurred, for the sheer 
fall from the strange " Sheep's Head " summit (hence 
the name) is a drop of some thousands of feet, and 
the overhanging edge is deceptive. 

This panorama of lake and mountain shows how 
absolutely inexhaustible are the excursions and 
pleasures to be had in this neighbourhood, and also 
gives one a slight, and yet bewildering idea of all 
the sights this part of Austria alone can show the 
traveller ; for not only do lake and mountain, valley, 
plain, and upland invite us, but a great stretch 
of the Danube valley is within our sight to the 
northward ; and it is a curious reminiscence that in 
the little town of St Wolfgang, Kaiser Leopold I. 

217 



Austria 

took shelter whilst he was permitting John Sobieski, 
the Pole, to free his capital, Vienna, from the 
Moslem. 

The Schafberg is a vain height, for it mirrors its 
protruding precipice summit in three lakes. The 
whole district entices one forcibly to linger amidst its 
strange beauty and genial folk. As we leave the 
inn of St Wolfgang the old hostess hands us a 
souvenir of the Saint, the little silver hatchet tied up 
with the local colours, red and white ; and with a 
" Griiss Gott " thus bids us warmly farewell. 

It is but a very short run by railway from St 
Wolfgang to Ischl, where we are in different sur- 
roundings. Instead of the simple townsfolk and 
peasantry, we are amidst fashionable, yea, court 
life, for Ischl is a favourite home of Kaiser Franz 
Josef L, and great hotels, Kurhaus, fashionable 
crowds, and great orchestras attract the beau monde 
of Europe to Ischl. These sudden contrasts of life 
are so frequent in Austria, and add to the charm of 
travel in her borders. 

Ischl may, in spite of its fashion, be said to 
be a jovial place, the nature around it and 
the deliriously pure air seeming to have an effect 
upon the invalids even, and the incursions of the 
peasants of the district with their music and 
dances, their popular and wedding feasts, help 
quickly to drive away depression, or that sense of 
sadness, which in some health resorts often comes 
over one. 

Here the baths and inhalation establishments, and 
the springs where the visitors resort for cures, are 
pleasantly situated, and the Kurhaus and hotels 

218 



The Salzkammergut 

take care that no ennui intrudes itself amidst patients 
and visitors, and especially is this good for the con- 
valescents who flock here from the cures of other 
resorts, such as Marienbad, Carlsbad, etc. Excellent 
Vienna orchestras and theatrical companies provide 
alternate amusement to the dances, evening re- 
ceptions, and excursions on lakes and mountains ; 
and sport, fishing, tennis, rowing or sailing, and 
mountain explorations fill up the days pleasantly 
and healthfully. For the invalid not yet strong 
enough for these undertakings, the tree-shaded 
promenades by river and mountain, with the superb 
views all around, ever varying, ever changing, soon 
makes one forget all ones ills, and soon leads on to 
strength to take the more exacting expeditions, such 
as up the valleys of the Traun or Ischl, or to the 
numerous heights around, where such wide views are 
to be had, or to the spectacle that Ischl always 
suggests to visitors, the wonder of the Salt mountain, 
whose mines when illuminated form so fascinating 
a spectacle. 

The dress of the well-to-do peasants in this district, 
as at St Wolfgang, lends itself to most picturesque 
effects of both form and colour, and those who are 
fortunate enough to see a farmer's wedding, with its 
accompanying ceremonies and dances, will have a 
scenic spectacle far more picturesque than many an 
operatic scene. 

They study well in the lake district dramatic 
and scenic effect, and do not forget the beautiful 
effects with which nature has endowed them. 

A noteworthy, interesting instance of this useful 
entwining of nature's handiwork with their own 

219 



Austria 

plans was given by the authorities of the Salz- 
kammergut, when the men and women of some 
twenty or more nationalities visited the province 
after the International Press Congress had been held 
in Vienna. 

Ischl was en fete. Carriages decorated with 
flowers and acacias received the guests, who 
were well entertained, but late in the evening 
they were taken on to Ebensee, too late, as some 
guests growled, to see the glorious scenery ; and as 
dusk was approaching two gaily decorated boats 
received the polyglotic visitors to take them on to 
Gmunden. 

Slowly out over the calm lake, now deep in colour, 
moved the ships ; the dark isolated peaks rose up 
to the night, and one could yet see the varied colours 
of the rocks, grey and red, and scored with the water 
torrents of winter. Still the deep pink of the sunset 
lit the lake, and on the left rose up a great mass as 
of a widened sugar cone, but only dimly could the 
mountains be seen in the half-light. Suddenly the 
bands were silent, the ships glided on very slowly 
over the dark waters, and another smaller ship all 
illuminated was seen emerging from the shadow of a 
great mountain : then the ships stopped ; and from 
over the lake came a voice from the smaller ship 
offering a welcome to the strangers who had come 
from all parts of the world to the Salzkammergut. 
It was the President of the Province who spoke, 
and on his ceasing rockets went up, the lake was 
lit up, and all around on height and in valley 
the peasants lit bonfires, and slowly the illuminated 
boats glided into Gmunden, where all along the 

220 



The Salzkammergut 

esplanade were illuminations and fires greeting the 
foreign visitors, and welcoming them to a local feast, 
full of local colour. All the men and girls who 
attended were in the pretty local costumes, and 
great beer casks decorated with flowers were being 
tapped by lusty mountaineers, and local orchestras 
were giving folk - dance music ; joviality reigned 
supreme. A striking contrast to all this cheery 
noisiness is the life on the higher aim, amidst the 
troups of peaceful cattle, browsing in the rich, deep 
pastures, breaking the silence of the eternal heights 
above by the mellow tone of the cow bells. 

This life is full of charm and strange remoteness 
to the wandering traveller who crosses the mountains 
and halts suddenly as he comes out upon an unex- 
pected turn in his thread-like path, that gives him 
a view down upon some such lake as the Traunsee, 
at the head of which Gmunden stands — a lake so 
curiously varied in its beauty, assuming colour so 
diversified, and with such vast masses of mountain 
forms around it. Early one morning we sailed 
across it in the quiet grey light ; a soft mist veiled the 
great height of the Traunstein, a mountain of nearly 
6000 feet, that makes a good climb though not a 
high one. 

Below there stood out in the deep, green water the 
lovely point of Traunkirchen, with the old church 
perched on the Johannisberg ; a point that is 
exquisite in form and colour, and a quiet resting- 
place for those who prefer the smaller places to 
the fashion of Gmunden and Ischl. 

The views are everywhere beautiful and full of 
contrasts, steep, barren, precipitous cliffs alternat- 

221 



Austria 

ing with deep, green forests, and little villages in rich 
pasture-land, and far above the towering crags glitter- 
ing from snow fields even in late summer. And, 
although to the casual visitor the population in the 
summer months may seem wholly given up to the 
catering for passing visitors, yet there is a great deal 
of industry carried on in these towns, and develop- 
ments of industries, as at Ebensee, at the northern 
end of the lake, where there is a good wood-carving 
school. 

The network of railways, or carriages, will quickly 
take the traveller to the other lakes in this inexhaus- 
tible district of Nature's beauties. Attersee, which 
we looked down upon from the Schafberg, the largest 
of all Austria's lakes, is worth visiting, if only for 
the wondrous blue of its waters. But it is also lovely 
for the great variety of its scenery, and the steamboat 
that sails over its bosom gives every opportunity for 
reaching the various resorts on its shores, from whence 
expeditions can be made into the mountains, and 
combination tours can be arranged with railway 
and steamers, to include the whole of the lakes in 
the district. This lake is 20 kilometres long (12 
miles) and 3 kilometres broad; it lies in its moun- 
tain nest 465 metres above sea-level. One of the 
pleasantest, and also a fashionable resort on this 
lake is Weissenbach, where there is a luxuri- 
ous hotel crouched under the precipitous hills, 
whence romantic walks and climbs in the deep 
klamms or gorges can be made, and expeditions to 
higher points that give good work to the climber. 
Although one is quickly away from every sign of 
haunt of man, yet from this lake one can go by electric 

222 



The Salzkammergut 

railway to the Mondsee, which lake we passed before 
arriving at St Wolfgang. There are two other gems 
in this lake district, lying to the south of the larger 
group of lakes, that also possess peculiar charms, or 
rather there is a group of some eight or nine lakes, the 
largest of which are the Hallstatter See, and the 
Alt-Ausseer See. The former, if only for the pleasure 
of seeing the quaint old town of Hallstatt, with its 
Tirolean-like houses, perched one above the other, all 
with the wide roofs and wooden balconies, and its 
two churches, one with its tall, thin spire on the level 
little promontory that juts out into the lake. This 
is the Protestant Church, whilst the Roman Catholic 
Church is more massive in form, and is perched above 
on a rocky ledge beneath the mountains that rise 
high above it. 

Here there is much local life and industry, and a 
royal technical school for wood industries, by no 
means to be likened to our own woodwork schools, 
as we have seen elsewhere. The museum here is 
of curious interest, especially for its Celtic relics. 
Hallstatt, although only a quaint, small town, will 
entice many who wish to study the life of the folk 
of the district, and also for the immense variety of 
walks and excursions within easy distance to water- 
falls and idyllic little villages, by forest and mountain 
footpaths. From Hallstatt another group of little 
lakes, the Gosau lakes, can be reached either by 
carriage or by foot. 

There are so many " most beautiful " points in this 
district, that it is indeed astounding for the very 
prodigality of Nature's choicest compositions ; one 
hesitates to quote the local statement that here amidst 

223 



Austria 

their smaller lake jewels is the finest point in the 
Salzkammergut, but Gosau, a little town of about 
1500 inhabitants, has around it the mountains of 
Hohen Dachstein, the Donnerkogel, the Zwieselalm, 
and other heights, and a group of little lakes that 
are romantically beautiful. The water is of a deep 
crystal green, and towering above are the glacier-rifted 
heights of the Dachstein, and other mountains, such 
as the four domed summits of the Donnerkogel, partly 
bare rock, partly white with snow and ice, the whole 
forming a series of views that enchant with their 
beauty. 

Here there is no danger of the terrible crowds 
from which it is impossible to escape in certain 
European mountain resorts ; but that the force 
that Nature exercises in this district is no longer 
to be allowed to be exercised for the production 
of beauty only, is evidenced by the fact that an 
electric power station is being built here with 18,000 
horse-power machines to utilise the water-power of 
the district. 

A railway runs from Hallstatt to the other group 
of lakes, the Aussee group. We are still on the Traun, 
the little tumultous river that gives its name to the 
Traunsee, emerging from the lake at Gmunden, and 
we are still in the salt district, for close to Aussee 
are the works of Kainisch. We have crossed the 
Styrian frontier in this little journey and are back 
again in the Steirmark, but still in the old Salz- 
kammergut. 

The market-town of Aussee is fairly large, having 
about 12,000 inhabitants, and possesses a fine 
Kurhaus and good hotels. It lies on the highway 

224 



The Salzkammergut 

from Gratz, the capital of Styria, to Salzburg, a grand 
route to-day for the automobilist through marvellous 
scenery and quaint towns. The old churches of 
Aussee tell of an interesting past, and have some 
relics of their mediaeval days still to interest the 
historian. But it is the delightful nature wonders 
around Aussee that attract, and in an hour we can be 
at the lake of Alt-Aussee, with that strange, weird 
range of mountains around us, the Tote, or dead 
mountains, or on another road, in still less time we 
reach the Grundlsee, where a little steamer takes 
us up this romantic little lake, with vast rock 
walls, and precipices all around, giving peeps to 
the higher, gloomy heights of the Totegebirge. At 
the end of the lake is the little landing-place at 
Gossl, and from here the trip can be extended to 
the other smaller lakes, the Toplitz and Kammer 
Lakes. 

Vast rock walls enclose the Toplitz Lake, and in 
the yet more deeply rock-embedded Kammersee is a 
romantic waterfall, the source of the Traun, that all 
along its course so adds to the beauty and wild, 
forceful charm of the scenery. 

One can return again and again to the seductive 
charm of this lake district of Austria. Every 
faculty of man is brought to bear in enjoying 
its nature and its beauty, and all knowledge 
adds to the pleasure of its wonders of mountain, 
river, rock, forest, woodland, lake and pasture- 
land; for botanist, and geologist, mountaineer, 
fisherman, and huntsman all have exciting ex- 
periences if they thoroughly explore the district ; 
and in the old towns, and amidst the folk of 
p 225 



Austria 

the district, the historian, the ethnologist, the 
archaeologist and antiquary can all add to their 
knowledge and alight on items of interest that will 
add to the pure fascination of the scenery around 
them throughout the Salzkammergut. 



226 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE DANUBE FROM THE BAVARIAN FRONTIER TO LINZ 

WE are now again approaching that mighty 
river that has had through the ages so 
powerful an influence upon the Danubian 
Empire. 
It is but a short railway run from the lake district 
to the Bavarian- Austrian frontier on the Danube, 
just east of Passau. From Gmunden the line runs 
via Attnang Ried and Scharding on the tributary to 
the Danube, the Inn ; and quickly arrives at Passau 
in Bavaria, where we take the Danube steamer, and 
for a short distance float as it were in neutral waters, 
having Austria on the right hand shore and Bavaria 
on the left. But immediately this Danubian Empire 
asserts her romantic spell. The waters of the Inn 
from the Tirol run side by side with the Danube for 
some distance without mingling, and on the left hand 
the waters of the Ilz do the same, so that from the 
deck of the steamer are seen the three colours — on the 
left the almost black Ilz, on the right the green Inn, 
and in the centre the yellowish-green Danube, for the 
Danube is never blue, save perchance far down near 
its mouth, where the wide expanse of water under a 
blue sky then becomes blue. 

In descending and ascending the river many 
times, I have never seen the wondrous legendary 
blue that is supposed to be the colour of the water. 

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Austria 

In 1873 falling into poetry, or at least rhyme, I 
wrote : 

" The schoene blaue Donau is not blue, 
But glitters with a yellow-greenish hue." 

That was in August. At other times when the glacier 
water or mountain floods are pouring in, it is of 
greyish-yellow hue. In one of the latest books on the 
Danube by Walter Jerrold, a statement is made by a 
captain that it is blue in the winter, but in October, 
down where it is miles in width, below Rustchuk, 
the water was of a greenish-yellow tinge, so the 
Blue Danube waltz has much to answer for. 

The retrospect to Passau is very beautiful, but soon 
the first of the Danube castles, Krempelstein, is seen, 
perched on its rocky height with soft, tree-bedecked 
hills around it, and this as it were, tunes the mind to 
the romance, pleasure, and calm enjoyment mixed 
with intellectual excitement there is in a voyage 
down the Danube through the two Crown lands of 
Upper and Lower Austria. Another local name for 
this castle is Schneiderschlossl, i.e., " The Tailor's 
Little Castle," and a legend is told of the tailor who 
cribbed the rich brocade for the Bishop of Passau's 
suit, and was thrown from this rock by the devil in 
the shape of a goat. 

Sometimes there is more than intellectual excite- 
ment such as that aroused by the beauty and charm 
of historic scenes or peasant grouping, for in times 
of flood or very low water the Danube can be fierce 
and turbulent, or tricksy is its behaviour, and the 
navigation requires extreme skill and caution, but 
these are rare if exciting events ; generally a voyage 
down this mighty flood is wholly a delightful ex- 

228 



The Danube 

perience, for the saloon steamers are fine boats, 
with good living on board. 

It is not necessary to sleep on board on this Upper 
Danube journey. Halt can be made at the picturesque, 
historic towns, or pretty villages, and a month can 
well be spent on Austrian soil between the Austrian- 
Bavarian frontier, that is but a kilometre from Passau, 
and Pressburg or Posony, the Hungarian frontier 
below Vienna. 

The population of Upper Austria, the Crown land 
that possesses so much of this romantic lake and river 
scenery, is almost wholly Teutonic, numbering nearly 
a million souls, with only about 5000 of various races, 
Cech, Italian, Slovens, intermixed here and there. 
And the pretty costume of the peasants on the river 
banks has almost disappeared. In 1873 one saw now 
and then the gorgeous black and gold jacket and white 
sleeves, but to-day on the great Holy Days, at the 
favourite shrines and pilgrimage churches, still as we 
shall see, crowds of peasants from various provinces 
may be seen on the steamboats, and the fore part of 
the ship is always interesting for the life of the people, 
be it in their strenuous work-a-day life, or in their 
holiday moods. 

If but very few books have appeared in English 
during the last century on Austria, there have been 
many books on the Danube, such as Planche's 
" Descent of the Danube." One of the best works 
with highly idealised steel plate engravings is Beattie's 
" The Danube " illustrated by W. H. Bartlett, and a 
quite modern book that gives many of the legends is 
" The Danube " by Walter Jerrold ; another modern 
book, Capt. B. Granville Baker's " The Danube with 

229 



Austria 

Pen and Pencil," has good illustrations from the 
author's pencil, but travellers will do well to get the 
little handbook issued by the Danube Steamboat 
Company in several languages, including English, that 
is an excellent key to the whole of the river, and is 
well illustrated. From source to mouth the Danube 
is a mighty and glorious stream, full of romance, 
and strange wild beauty. 

The pleasurable excitement in journeying on its 
waters soon begins, for quickly below Krempelstein 
we see in the middle of the river the, in old days, 
dreaded Jochstein, the home of a Danube " Mermaid " 
of the Loreley type. A dark rock rising in the centre 
of the stream, with a little shrine upon it, once a 
stronghold, to-day only a praying shrine, with the 
arms of Bavaria and Austria cut out upon the rock ; 
and now on either hand villages and hills, churches 
and castles and monasteries, in ruins, or inhabited, 
keep the traveller's mind occupied with legend and 
action. 

At Marsbach one sees two old Robber Knight's 
castles, in sight of each other — Rannariedl and 
Marsbach — picturesque enough now these castles, in 
artistic ruins, or renewed, as some are, for modern 
residences, but fierce evidence of the days gone by, 
when travellers and merchandise on the river were 
seized as booty. A heavy raft floating by this castle, 
with a small house upon it, and ten men guiding its 
course, tells of the travel of old days. Near here 
the river doubles back on itself, and the scene is very 
lovely ; lofty, rocky, abrupt, woody heights on the 
one hand, and on the other, sloped corn or pasture 
fields, with an old white ruin amidst the hills. Then 

230 



The Danube 

again the scene changes, and the river is as a lake 
shut in by abrupt rocky, volcanic-like hills. This 
part of the river is full of ever changing beauty ; 
even the Austrian books will persist in comparing it 
to the Rhine, but what a libel on the Danube ; the 
beauty here is far more continuous and more varied 
than on the Rhine, and I have walked and otherwise 
journeyed up and down that river over a period of 
many years. 

The names of the villages here nearly all end with 
Zell, i.e. cell, and the suggestion is that this favoured 
spot by nature was a retreat of many of the early 
Christian hermits in days of persecution, and the 
churches with the tall slight towers, and domed 
summits, sometimes in low toned reds, at others in 
rich verdigris bronze, keep up the legend of hermit 
and monk. 

This part of the river is full of twists and turns 
through the varied narrow gorges. The Danube by 
no means flows ever eastward, but is twisted by the 
hard rocks and mountain heights to every point of 
the compass, and the hills continually vary in form. 
As we near Neuhaus, they become steep and pointed 
and the rocks stand up in castellated forms from 
amidst the trees. But at Neuhaus, the hills and 
woods recede from the river, and the old castle with a 
romanesque tower, stands proudly out on its granite 
seat, above the little town, that is surrounded with 
hop gardens, and piles of timber making up for the 
rafts. 

Great barges with the pointed painted prows lie 
here for the river traffic, and the river itself is wide 
and calm after its rush through the narrow passes. 

231 



Austria 

The stream, however, was not too wide, but that 
in old days it could be blockaded with chains to stay 
an enemy's course down the river. In the days of 
the Turkish terror, the great buildings of the castle 
were used as a refuge for women and children. 

On floating down from Neuhaus there comes a 
most glorious stretch of the river. One can look 
ahead now and see the glittering water shining far 
away between the hills. A steamboat is slowly 
coming up the stream, and in the distance the view 
is shut by green sloped hills, and an old ruin on a 
wooded height. The old rambling ruins of Schaum- 
burg are close to Aschach, and legend and history mix 
themselves up in tradition. The Schaumburgs were 
a powerful family here and in France, and their 
history goes back to the twelfth century. According 
to the historian, iEneas Sylvius, the name should be 
Schonberg ; in Latin he gives it " De monte pulchrio." 

But there are other things besides human history 
to fascinate one on this river. One of the most in- 
teresting things on the Danube to study, is the timber 
work. The great piles of logs are seen waiting at the 
out falls of the mountain streams, that have brought 
them down to the Danube, and a halt at some of these 
tempting spots gives pleasant opportunity to stroll 
away up amongst the upland meadows, through 
which these tributaries run, and there from some 
rustic bridge to watch the men at work on the logs 
getting them in their wayward obstinacy to travel 
on down stream ; for as the rushing stream carries 
them on, they have an almost fiendish habit of piling 
themselves up, blocking all passage. It is quite 
exciting work to see the woodsmen, with their long 

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The Danube 

spiked and hooked poles, freeing them and starting 
the logs again on their journey. One reviewer in 
writing upon the novel, " John Westacott," noted the 
point, that in that book, incidentally I told the 
life of a fir tree from the seed dropped into some rock 
cranny until the tall pine was floated down the river, 
and became the high mast of a ship, or of one of the 
1000- ton barges one sees lower down the stream ; 
and it was from foresters on the Danube banks 
that I gleaned my knowledge of this fascinating 
study. 

From fighting baron to forester, and from history 
to legend, from mediaeval robber's nest ruins to 
modern tourist resorts, are the type of variation and 
ever changing interest that hold one on the Danube. 

The story of Undine has a new charm, and the 
quaint old phraseology of the Niebelungen Lied suits 
the stately flow of the river, down the banks of which 
Kriemhild passed to the Huns. 

It was at Passau that she came to the Danube. 

" Am Donauflusse kamen sie in das Baierland." 
To her uncle the Prince Bishop of Passau, — as she 
passed by Aschach the scene that met her eyes must 
have been much as that which delights the traveller 
of to-day. She passed the night at Everdingen, which 
is close to Aschach, and as we leave that town we get a 
view in the distance of the Alps ; their white heights 
and glaciers glittering amidst the dark towering 
masses. The river now becomes wide, lined on either 
side with trees and fields, and the hills recede to a 
distance, and so give this beauteous view of the 
Alps. 

We are now in the heart of the district where 

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the Peasant's war of 1626 took such a hold, and the 
student of this period will do well to make a halt, and 
glean the local traditions. The Imperial General was 
Herbertstorf, and the peasants' leader a hatmaker, 
Stephen Fadinger, a local Andreas Hofer, who con- 
quered from this point to Linz, where he was wounded 
and died ; he was buried where Kriemhild halted at 
Eferding. The war was terribly bitter and cruel ; and 
General Herbertstorf had the body of the peasants' 
leader dug up and sunk in a swamp. 

The Danube now flows on less swiftly as we descend, 
and winds between numerous flat islands, herons 
standing idly on the banks. Sometimes it seems im- 
possible to pass amongst these wooded islands, but 
suddenly a passage opens out of the lake-like expanse, 
and the scene changes from rock and pine to corn and 
pasture and fruit orchard, dotted with dark roofed 
cottages. 

It is interesting to watch the navigation of the river 
steamboats that draw only four feet of water. Often 
as we glide through the rapids and over the shallows, 
those who understand the man (or men) with the lead 
at the bows, will hear him call out, a depth with only 
a few inches to spare. The lead is really a sounding 
pole marked in red and black with the measurements ; 
and on the big saloon boats often there are four men 
at the wheel, so powerful is the current, and I have 
seen a man hurled from the wheel on to the lower deck 
when the current nearly overpowered the men. The 
river is also well marked out with poles and buoys. 
The officers of the ships are most courteous and 
gentlemanly, wearing a quiet handsome uniform, 
and always ready to give all reasonable information. 

234 



The Danube 

As we near Ottensheim, we pass another raft with 
six men tugging at the great sweeps, and two men at 
the end of the raft with poles, sounding for depth. 
They have their small hut on board, on which is 
mounted their flag, and as we slow down to pass 
them, that the wash of the paddles shall not swamp 
their piled-up timber raft, the square turretted tower 
of the Castle of Ottensheim, with the white buildings 
around it, comes in sight. Clustered amidst trees it 
stands out upon a rocky point in the river ; already 
in the distance we can see the height of the Postling- 
berg, that looks down upon Linz. The pretty 
Chateau of Ottensheim is of ancient date, being 
mentioned in the twelfth century ; lately it was the 
residence of Count Coudenhove, with whom, in Prague, 
when Statthalter (Viceroy) of Bohemia, I had the 
pleasure of some interesting conversations, especially 
upon the important regulation of the Moldau and 
Elbe floods, and shipping development, and the im- 
provements at the junction of these two important 
rivers. Now, as we float past his Chateau, again the 
scene changes. The rocks and wooded heights close 
in, the fine old Cistercian monastery of Wilhering is 
passed ; still higher rise the hills and clustering 
rocks, and the two pointed towers of the Castle of 
Buchenau is seen on the left, and then all seems closed 
in ; but we sweep round a sharp turn, with an old 
fort on either side and a fort on a height, and suddenly 
Linz appears, shut in by a sharp promontory with a 
white chapel on its summit, amidst the dark firs. 
For a time Linz is lost to sight, but we steam on round 
another promontory to the left, and the whole beauti- 
ful sweep of the river is in view with the bridge of Linz 

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Austria 

crossing the wide river, now placid, and on the left 
rises the height of the Postlingberg. 

The many spired and domed town lies mostly on 
the right hand, opposite this height, and with the flat 
country beyond, stretching away to where the broad 
glittering Danube flows on to the hills beyond, 
combines to form a very lovely scene, and tempts to 
a long halt in this important city, the capital of Upper 
Austria. 

In spite of the importance and beauty of this 
province, it is but thinly populated, the sum of its 
inhabitants only reaching about a million, and of 
these, the city of Linz claims about 70,000, with about 
14,000 in its suburb or town of Urfahr, on the left 
bank of the river. In 1896 both towns only numbered 
about 55,000 inhabitants, showing the recent de- 
velopments of the city. 

This advance is largely owing to the railway de- 
velopments already noted, and Linz has become an 
important railway centre, linking up the great seaports 
of Hamburg and Triest. An Exchange has also been 
established, and a great museum developed, whilst 
the educational establishments are very important. 
These include a Commercial and a Railway Engineers' 
School. 

The adoption of electric tramways, and the 
mountain rail up the Postlingberg, have also greatly 
helped the increased prosperity of this ancient city, 
known to the Romans under the name of Lentia. 

On my second visit to Linz, in the year 1873, it 
was a very quiet country town, and to show how 
careless the authorities were of sanitary caution in 
those days, the first sight I saw as I went up in the 

236 



The Danube 

early morning into the Hauptplatz from the Erzherzog 
Carl Hotel, was a man being borne in on a litter of 
tree branches, dying, if not already dead, from 
cholera. As I was just recovering from an attack 
of this same scourge, I well remember the shock the 
sight gave me, but such a thing to-day in Austria is 
impossible, and medical and sanitary matters are well 
looked after everywhere. 

In spite of the splendid position of Linz on the 
Danube, and the finding of Roman remains within 
its borders, history is reticent upon events in its life, 
and it is not before 1098 that it is mentioned as a 
walled town ; tradition has it that Richard Cceur 
de Lion was entertained here when coming up the 
Danube after being liberated from Diirrenstein. A 
curious glimpse of church history is given in the fact 
that in 1236 three bishops, and the Patriarch of 
Acquileia with other nobles, and the King of Bohemia, 
were besieging the town. Since that date it has 
suffered greatly from sieges, plague, insurrection, and 
fire, and in spite of the attention bishops gave it, it 
was strongly Protestant in 1550. To-day in the 
whole Crown land of Upper Austria there are only 
about 20,000 Protestants. It became a Bishopric in 
1785, and it was at this time the woollen manufactures 
of Linz were the most prosperous in Austria. 

The words of one of these manufacturers, or rather 
managers, in 1841 to Herr Kohl, gives a striking 
contrast to the tone to-day of master and men. " The 
inmost soul of all art is religion, and the fear of God, 
and our work is a kind of art. I take no workmen 
of whose character I am not certain. I pay far more 
heed to this than to their skill," and this manager, or 

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Austria 

rather " Imperial and Royal Inspector of Woollen 
Printing " encouraged pleasant chat whilst the work 
was going on, and talked of putting up Schiller's 
words : 

" Wenn gute Reden sie begleiten 
So fliesst die Arbeit munter fort." * 

To-day, there are important locomotive works, and 
also spinning and weaving mills, and breweries, in 
the town and district. 

The modern museum at Linz is one of the finest in 
Austria, well placed with a garden around it, and with 
a well executed illustrative frieze running round its 
exterior, above the windows, and the collections are 
well arranged and of immense value, educationally 
and intrinsically. 

The prettiest view of Linz is seen in coming across 
the great bridge and entering the Franz Joseph Platz. 
In the centre of this, the Grande Place of Linz, rises 
the roccoco column of the Trinity, erected to celebrate 
the cessation of two great plagues — the pest, and the 
Turks, who at last were driven back. Here in the 
early morning the milk and vegetable sellers still 
have some characteristic costumes, broad hats and 
black and white head-dresses, and on fete days, in the 
old cathedral close by, peasants from the surrounding 
country may be seen in their costumes. 

Like all other cities in Austria, Linz during the 
last twenty-five years has sprung to new life, and the 
handsome public buildings, such as the Railway 
Offices, the General Savings Bank, the Parliament 

* " When genial chat with work combines, 
Then Labour pleasantly moves on." 
238 



The Danube 

House for Upper Austria, with its pretty poetical 
monument to the Kaiserin Elizabeth, the Merchants' 
Hall, and the various educational buildings, especially 
the Railway Technical Schools, all speak of modern 
advancement and eager, intellectual development. 
Few of these buildings were existing when I first knew 
Linz, and it is a very different thing to walk in and 
around Linz to-day and in the seventies of the nine- 
teenth century. The churches have always some fete 
or Saints' day to celebrate. I was once present at a 
most solemn service here in memory of Her Majesty 
the Kaiserin Elizabeth, when the music was most 
impressive. 

An interesting example of development is illustrated 
by my first ascent of the Postlingberg in the seventies, 
and again in the twentieth century. Wishing to see 
the view of Linz by moonlight from this height we 
strolled up the Danube, and, led by some village lads, 
in the dusk clambered up a goat's path, coming 
suddenly to a great slit in the rocks, which we had to 
leap, and so in a tough scramble, which one man of our 
party gave up as too stiff, we came out on the summit 
of the Postlingberg, and a glorious view of Linz was 
below us. As we stood silently in the moonlight, 
looking at the calm view, some singing arose in the 
quiet night, and we found it was some watchers at a 
lime kiln, passing their time by singing and jodling 
after the Tyrolean mode. Such was our poetical, 
interesting experience in the seventies ; to-day an 
electric tram takes us across the Danube to Urfahr, 
and then a mountain railway quickly lifts us up the 
1800 feet, and lo ! there is a great hotel and restaurant, 
with a grand terrace, whereon one can dine and watch 

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Austria 

the sunset effects on the distant Alps and the play 
of light and colour on the nearer heights. The 
Salzkammergut and half Upper Austria is in view, 
and the onward sweep of the Danube into Lower 
Austria, whilst below, as on a raised map, is the city 
of Linz. Very often the terrace is occupied by some 
congress or company, and some good music may be 
heard, and joviality prevails. If one is lazy enough 
to ride up to the summit, at least one should walk 
down the mountain, halting at the old forts, and at 
the interesting pilgrimage church, before descending, 
and enjoy the varied views as we descend to the town. 
It is interesting that in the Niebelungen Lied no 
mention is made of Linz, and the dangers of attack 
and robbery on this part of Kriemhild's journey is 
vividly depicted. Her next halting-place is beyond 
where the Traun falls into the Danube, where from 
her proud castle the fair Gotelinde rides out with a 
gay company of knights and maidens of high degree 
and great beauty to welcome Kriemhild, and give 
her " night quarters." 



240 




l.\ THE STODER \" \ I I \A 



CHAPTER XXV 

THE DANUBE FROM LINZ TO VIENNA 

WE must quit Linz, leaving much of its 
pleasant excursions and of its history 
unsaid, and follow on Kriemhild's route, 
but by boat. 

It is always well to study the retrospect as we 
leave these halting spots on the Danube. Here this 
is very beautiful, but as we sail on, far over the flat 
land, on the right comes in the view of the Alps, the 
white snow glittering in the morning sun. On the 
left the sloping hills are interspersed with wood and 
corn. Herons stand on the pebbly beaches, and the 
river winds on between rich meadows. 

We float on past castles, and halt at busy riverside 
towns, where the peasantry, heavily laden, especially 
in the autumn, come on board, with the produce of 
fruit and vegetables. 

One of the greatest of the vast monasteries so 
plentiful in Austria is soon approached. This monas- 
tery of St Florian, the arch-protector against fire, 
is an immense building. The author, Herr Kohl, 
gives a very full account of this monastery, as 
he saw it in 1841, and he speaks of this cloistered 
palace as magnificent, and of the kindly work of the 
fathers. As we shall halt at a similar vast monastery 
at Melk, we here can only refer to the fact that it 
possessed 787 houses and farms in the nineteenth 
Q 241 



Austria 

century, and has a great collection of MSS. and early 
printed books, and thus hint at the whole charm of 
the place and its surroundings. Near by is a castle of 
Prince Auersperg, who was for some time lately the 
vigorous, learned, and courteous Minister for Agricul- 
ture. A prosperous town and a good halting-place is 
Mauthausen, where the life of the folk can be studied. 
As Maut the first syllable of its name implies, it was 
a taxing border in bygone days, and the Avars 
established a heavy tax here on the Danube mer- 
chants. Later Barbarossa's crusading fleet was 
stopped for toll, but that led to the burning of the 
town. On the opposite shore the Enns flows into 
the Danube. Near here stood the Lauriacum of the 
Romans, an important river station, whence, legend 
has it, the Christian faith was spread abroad through 
Austria. These slight hints of history give sugges- 
tions to the student of antiquity or medieeval lore of 
the vast field for research there is throughout this 
district ; and in many a monastery, and in the 
archives of the towns and churches, there are 
probably documents lying perdu that would throw 
valuable light on the past. We have passed 
St Florian, where there are 70,000 volumes and 
many MSS., and we shall see at Melk how glorious 
can be a monastery library, if we had not already 
learnt it at Prague and elsewhere ; it was in 
such hoards of documents that Palacky found so 
much for his most fascinating historical work. The 
Enns forms the boundary of the Crownland of Lower 
Austria, and we are once again in the province of the 
capital ; but how much there is to see and delight in 
ere we see again the tall spire of St Stephen. 

242 



The Danube from Linz to Vienna 

As we pass along onward over the greyish-green 
waters we get a lovely peep between the trees of the 
castle of Wallsee, a great castellated palace dominated 
by its high square tower. A curious evidence of the 
change come over the life of the district is given by 
a description of the work and life of the beavers, 
who built their houses and bred on the river banks in 
the early half of the seventeenth century. Steam 
has probably driven them away, as it has driven the 
crocodiles from the Lower Nile. 

It is at Wallsee that the greatest beauty of the 
Danube commences, so say many writers, but it is 
very difficult to exactly state which part of the 
Danube can ^laim pre-eminence in beauty. " Only 
in a series of dithyrambics and to the accomplishment 
of the harp are they worthily to be sung," exclaims 
one writer as he describes the scenes after leaving 
Wallsee. Sometimes in the evening the men of the 
boat, or passengers, sing on the bows the folk songs of 
the district, and this is a more appropriate accompani- 
ment to the beauty than even the harp. 

As we approach Grein the high rocks and wooded 
hills close in on the river, and there seems no way out. 
Then the waters open out into a lake-like expanse, and 
the pretty detached little town of Grein appears on 
the left. Years ago, when I first saw this spot, it was 
a village-like town with only its white homely houses 
and great square castle, and its church, with a red 
topped roof and tiny tower, but to-day castle and 
church are there still, but all along the shore are 
picturesque villas and pretty hotels tempting one 
desperately, to land and halt here for exploration of 
all the romantic scenery that seems so poetically and 

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Austria 

caressingly to envelop Grein. Well may it be called 
the pearl of the Danube for itself and its surroundings. 

An hour's walk from Grein is the little Bath of 
Kreuzen, and the picturesque Chateau Clam. 
Another interesting walk is to the Stillenstein Klamm, 
the very name inviting one to a stroll up between 
its romantic cliffs. " The mountains rise steeply on 
either side as we pass up the Klamm, clothed from 
the very water's edge with beech and pine and 
other trees. About the great grey boulders of rock 
are a profusion of ferns and mosses. The whole is 
like the beauty of some Devonshire lane and stream : 
a kind of lyric loveliness, that uplifts and gladdens, 
where the grandeur of the great river to which the 
stream is hurrying has something rather of epic 
sweep and solemnity." So writes Walter Jerrold of 
this mighty edition of a Devonshire ravine, and we 
are soon to see, in quitting Grein, how the Danube 
in old times could be not only epic but tragic in its 
fierceness. 

As we leave the pleasant landing-stage and move 
out into the wide stream all is placid, and looking 
back the river is shut in by hills, as if it were a lake. 
The passengers crowd to the bows of the boat to 
get the view and the excitement ; as we quickly get 
into the rush of a rapid ; steam is shut off, and we 
move swiftly onwards, borne by the torrent, down 
the Greiner Schwall, on the surging, boiling waters. 
Then comes a quiet short stretch of the river, and the 
rocks narrow in ; again we are in the boiling waters ; 
the rocks seem to overhang the river, and ahead 
there is a little rocky islet with a cross upon it ; it 
seems we must crash into it, but we rush past this 

244 



The Danube from Linz to Vienna 

isle that divides the river, and are quickly in the 
boiling, surging Strudel. The boat sways and trembles 
in the rushing current ; ahead is a strong old ruin, 
the castle of Werfenstein, and we are again in peaceful 
waters, with the high walls around us ; but quickly 
we are once more in surging waters. On the left we 
see an inscription telling how the dangers of this, the 
Wirbel, have been lessened, and we pass on into quieter 
waters. But let me quote : — 

" Agnes watched the scene, but it was beyond her 
power to take in the sight of rocks and chalets, wood 
and covert, and rocks piled in fantastic shapes around 
her. The waters foamed and boiled, the steamer 
seemed to shake and tremble beneath their feet. The 
river grew narrower and more narrow, until the leap- 
ing, tossing waters seemed to give no room to pass a 
high-peaked, fir-clad rock ahead. All eyes were 
strained. It was but a few moments ; the ship seemed 
to leap onward, and they were safely past the old 
ruin below the cross-capped rock, and the passengers 
breathed again, as the ship still went swiftly on, now 
in calm, placid water, with a wider course, and high 
hills overshadowing them. 

" The vicar and his daughter both turned to Ralph 
with an exclamation of surprise at this exciting scene ; 
but Ralph said : ' Look ahead, we shall soon be in 
the Wirbel ' ; and ere many minutes had elapsed 
again the steamer was rushing through the boiling, 
surging waters, that whirl round the rock and ruin 
of Haustein." So I wrote in " John Westacott " 
many years ago, and to-day the scene has but little 
altered, and this note describes how rapidly the 
scenes are passed. 

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Austria 

There is much of history and legend clinging round 
this romantic pass, and the Worth island carries us 
back into Celtic and Roman days. All river traffic 
could easily be blocked by the possessor of this islet. 
The cross has a legend of its own, of a certain Count, 
who, with his wife, was wrecked in trying to pass the 
Strudel ; he saved himself, and in grief at the loss 
of his wife became a hermit on this island. The 
wife too was saved from the stream, and she mourned 
her husband for twelve years ; but hearing of the 
holy hermit on the island, went to him for pious 
consolation, and lo ! it was her husband, and as a 
thank-offering for their salvation and reunion they 
erected this cross. 

The speed at which we rush down this most in- 
teresting part of the river compels one to visit the 
spot again and again to understand its beauty ; a 
good way is to come up the river, as, of course, the 
struggle against the stream compels a slower pace. 
A cannon is generally fired as we enter the gorge, to 
halt anything leaving Grein. When this happens 
at night the effect of the thundering reverberation 
echoing from rock to rock and hill to hill is very 
alarming to the passengers sleeping below, a fact I 
utilise in " John Westacott," that story being dated 
during the Franco-Prussian War. 

The granite rock formation is deeply interesting 
to the geologist ; and the botanist who wanders up 
the Klamms will find interesting specimens to repay 
the time, even if the romantic scenery is not sufficient 
repayment. 

As we come from the rush and hurry, and fretting 
wear of this rocky gorge, we see, as the river widens 

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The Danube from Linz to Vienna 

out a peaceful little village, with white houses, per- 
chance on a fete day hung with flags, that contrast 
with the dark firs on the over-towering hills, and 
then we soon come to Sarmingstein, with its old, grey, 
round ruined tower. 

The passenger boats in the old days, before 
steam, were called the Ordinari, and the rowers and 
steerers had to be very adept and alert to bring 
their boats through the rapids, and how the passengers 
must have rejoiced when they reached Sarbingstein, 
now called Sarmingstein. The legends, and history, 
and stories upon this part of the Danube are 
voluminous — the Devil's Tower, and the Black 
Monk, magical lights and disasters. The searcher 
into folklore and legend can have his fill here. By 
watching rafts rush these and other rapids, one can 
glean somewhat of the peril of the old days. In 
some cases the raftsmen have high seats to jump 
into as they rush a torrent, and it is exciting to see 
them work their rafts into position, and as they are 
entering a surging rapid, jump on this raised seat to 
be out of the rush of the water. 

At Sarmingstein the view is wholly changed, and 
it is very beautiful ; on the right are pleasant slopes, 
with occasional rocks and pines, interspersed with 
soft green pasture and delicate - tinted birch and 
other trees, contrasting with the dark fir patches ; 
and here and there are dark wooden, and white 
chaiet-like houses. In the autumn an added colour 
is given by rich corn plateaus, high up, whence the 
forests slope to the river. 

Calmly we sail on now. A raft is lying on the 
river with one solitary man upon it. The left bank 

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Austria 

becomes flat with picturesque bits of dark rock 
jutting up here and there, backed by richly cultivated 
hills. 

Then the river winds, and ahead on an out jutting 
bluff we see the white walls of the stately castle of 
Persenbeug, commanding this upper stretch of the 
river, and a wide stretch of waters beyond. The 
corruption of this word from Bosen — Beug or the 
" evil (dangerous) bend " — is a curious one ; formerly 
it was dangerous, to-day it is a lovely spot, and the 
royal castle and park are open to the public, and just 
opposite, on the right bank, is the old town of Ybbs, all 
combining to make this a delightful halting-place for 
either modernist or the archaeologist, or Nature friend. 

This point of the Danube was utilised as an im- 
portant station by the Romans, as the name Pons 
Isidis implies, and all through the ages it has been 
utilised as a military station. Persenbeug became a 
castle in the ninth century, and later on the Graf schaft 
or county, linked with it, was a wide and rich one. 
Fistright and ecclesiastics struggled here for suprem- 
acy, as everywhere, and the arrival by water of the 
Emperor Henry III., with Bishop Bruno, must have 
formed a stately pageant ; but it ended tragically, 
for the floor of the banqueting hall fell in with 
Emperor and Bishop and Abbot, and hostess, the 
Countess Richlinde, all falling into the bathroom 
below — a proof that they had bathrooms in days of 
yore in these castles. One account gives it that the 
Bishop fell on the edge of the bath-tub ; and in 
Austria I have seen a bathroom, with an enormous 
tub that required many a bucket and much labour 
to fill it, and anyone who fell on its solid edge would 

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The Danube from Linz to Vienna 

certainly be killed, as were the Countess, Bishop 
and Abbot, the Emperor escaping. 

The gardens and park of the castle are well laid 
out, and the views, especially from the towers, are 
superb, embracing the hills and rocks around the great 
reaches of the Danube, and far-away glimpses of the 
Alps. 

Ybbs has good baths and good inns and delightful 
walks, and here, where an Englishman would only 
look for a primary school, is a most important fruit - 
culture school, and, of course, a good local museum. 
All down the river it will be seen how carefully the 
fruit orchards are tended. It was somewhat of a 
surprise to meet here a torpedo boat flotilla — one 
scarcely expects to see warships on a river — but the 
Danube, especially lower down, is carefully patrolled 
where the river becomes a vast frontier. 

From the river across the flat country by Ybbs 
we get the outline of the Alps, and the whole scene is 
very peaceful and beautiful as we pass onward by the 
little town of Sausenstein, with its old castle and 
church, and then ahead on a high hill we see a great 
church with two towers and black domes, and soon 
reach the town of Marbach. 

This is one of the most famous spots on the Danube, 
and if one is here on the great fete days of the church 
on the hill, the Maria Taferl Church, the crowd of 
peasants in their various costumes is most interesting 
and picturesque. It is curious, then, to see the crowds 
on the steamboats of the pilgrims coming from the 
festival. The peasants in their bright colours mingling 
with the acolytes, still wearing their red cassocks 
and white surplices. All wear medals and flowers, 

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Austria 

and pictures of Maria of the Taferl. The church, so 
conspicuous from a distance, is about 1500 feet above 
sea level, and stands upon a plateau that gives a 
grand prospect for hundreds of miles ; and for many 
a year the people have flocked to the spot as to a local 
Lourdes, or Lorretto. The origin of the devotion 
to this " Maria of the little table " is said to have 
been an image of the Virgin that hung in an oak 
tree over a stone table, whereon the peasants used to 
feast after giving thanks for a good harvest. A 
peasant essayed to cut down this tree, but his axe 
cut his foot, and looking up he saw the image, and 
was contrite, whereupon the image immediately cured 
his foot. This miraculous cure was quickly spread 
abroad, and the fame of the image has spread even 
to this day, and vast, and most varied, are the crowds 
who, for three days now in every September, pray for 
benefactions at this shrine of Maria Taferl. 

The local literature throughout Austria is always 
interesting, and often learned, and here the legends, 
and shall we say superstitions, are worth reading, and 
a local romance of the Middle Ages, entitled " Jesse 
and Maria," embodies a true picture of life on the 
Danube shores of that period. 

We must not halt too long at these romantic spots, 
for greater scenes, if not more beautiful, are ahead. 
There is a fine wide stretch of the river ere we come 
to the much-sung of Pochlarn — Great Pochlarn on 
the right, and Little Pochlarn on the left bank. 
Even the Danube Steamship Company's guide falls 
into rythmic prose as it approaches Pochlarn — 

"Es rauscht ein Klang von Nibelungen Lied ueber den Strom" — 

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The Danube from Linz to Vienna 

but it also tells of the days when Pochlarn was the 
harbour for the Roman river flotilla, and the valuable 
collection of the stone age found near by, and pre- 
served in the museum. 

It was here that the windows of the castle were all 
freely open, instead of suspiciously closed with shutters, 
to greet Kriemhild and her retinue. Many a stanza 
is given to her reception at Bechelaren, as the Lied 
spells it, by the young daughter and spouse of Riidiger — 

" Die Fenstern an die Mauern sah man geoffhet stehn 
Die Veste Bechelaren war auf gethan zu sehn " — 

and their entry into the wide halls of the castle, below 
which ran the Danube, is well described, and a rich 
exchange of presents was made, ere Kriemhild passed 
onward to Medeliche, or Molk (Melk) as we know it 
now. 

Perhaps it is from these stanzas that the name 
" Blue " Danube has been taken, for Kriemhild was 
escorted, " Die blaue Donau nieder bis gen Mutakaren 
hin," i.e. " along the banks of the Blue Danube from 
Molk to Mautern." 

But before we reach Molk, we pass the picturesque 
old castle of Weiteneck, a curious romantic old pile 
on a precipitous rock, with a great square tower, and 
tower on tower around it, and a little stone balcony 
above the dark rock. Here, as nearly always near 
these strongholds, there is broken water and rapids, 
proving a dangerous passage, and a better chance to 
pounce on booty or enemy. This was one of the 
castles of Riidiger, the husband of Kriemhild's 
hostess. 

And now ahead comes in sight one of the most 

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vast and important, and most imposing buildings 
on the whole stretch of the Danube, the great 
Monastery of Melk. As the great pile of buildings 
comes in sight, stretching along the rocky wooded 
ridge, high above the river, the stately domes and 
towers and long palatial line of the monastery com- 
mand a halt, and we disembark at the quiet landing 
stage, and drive up through the quaint old town 
to the Stoklassa Hotel, in a lovely avenue, from 
whence we look out on to the great monastery. 

The birds are singing, and there comes up the 
musical ring of hammer on anvil, but again, as every- 
where in this Danubian empire, close by, in this 
little old-world retreat, there are great new school 
buildings. 

But as in Rome, and Athens, one is at once 
attracted to the forum and acropolis, here it is the 
vast dominating Stift or monastery that entices, and 
we proceed up the Stiftweg, through the first gate, 
and up the steps to the great gate, with the date 
1718 upon it. Roccoco statues are upon it, and as 
we cross over the drawbridge and enter the first 
court, we see an old round tower on the right hand, 
a remnant of twelfth- century work. We pass on 
through a great Portico, and then enter the inner 
court, with a great bronze fountain in the centre. 
The buildings around are of the classical order, and 
as we halt and look around, we feel as though we were 
in some great college ; but all is silent, and there is no 
quick young life surging around. We pass on along a 
corridor, and enter the church. All is in the richest 
roccoco style and a blaze, but yet an artistic blaze 
of gold, with rich carving over the stalls, and a Last 

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The Danube from Linz to Vienna 

Supper over the altar. The special Loges or pews 
for the abbot, or nobles, are above the altar, and are 
closed in and glazed. 

The great bells boom and clang as we stand before 
the altar, in front of which swings a great artistic 
lamp in silver and copper. The dome is of great 
height, and is all illustrated, and the pulpit is a 
gorgeous mass of rich gold, expressively carved. 

At the side altars also there is some most excellent 
carving, especially one scene of the Circumcision. 
The relics, skeletons, and bones are decked out in 
silk and velvet, and jewels and gold, and in the 
chapels there is very much of artistic worth and 
quaint interest. As we come out of the west doors 
of this impressive, vast, gorgeous building, we step 
out through an archway on to the famous balcony, 
that with its arch forms so conspicuous a point from 
the Danube. From it, what a glorious expanse of 
view, superbly beautiful, we look upon. The glitter- 
ing broad flood of the river, the hills beyond, and 
castle and hamlet, forest, woodland and pasture; 
a view that ever lingers impressively in the mind. 

As we were slowly strolling back through the 
courts, an old priest appeared — a Friar Tuck-like 
priest — and we began a chat ; but ere long another 
keen-faced brother appeared, and joined in the talk, 
and on finding we were interested in history and 
antiquity, soon told us he knew Egypt and Tunis, 
and the name of Pere Delattre of Carthage quickly 
formed a bond of union between us. We were 
delighted to hear the newcomer was Brother Berthold, 
known to the world as Dr Hofer, and as he soon had 
to leave he arranged that Dr Schachinger, the 

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librarian, should meet us at 9 o'clock in the morning 
and show us what we so longed to see, the library, and 
also other treasures of the monastery. 

But ere Brother Berthold left us, he took us up 
through the garden to the north side of the monastery 
to the Loggia, now used as a restaurant for the 
students, and to the east, up an avenue, that recalled 
Addison's walk ; the whole thing continually re- 
minded one of Oxford. We passed on round to the 
fish-pond, and to a view outlook, where were seats, 
and a table, all covered with Latin and German 
phrases, in praise of the beauty of the spot. 

And truly here also was another glorious view of 
hills and corn and forest, and to the east, the high 
dark clustering hills of that district we are about to 
enter by the Danube gate, the Wachau, the much- 
praised tourist district of the river. All was so still 
and peaceful, nought but the birds broke the silence, 
but there was a disturber of the peace, a very tiny, 
but potent one, the Gelsoe ! — a very special mosquito, 
with a very special sting, that breeds in the little 
stagnant ornamental ponds. But some brothers 
were strolling to and fro in the arcaded walks un- 
heeding these tormentors. Palms and accacias, and 
the red Glycena tree, and other botanical varieties 
were in the gardens, and we had a chat with the 
gardener, who regretted more was not done here, and 
as usual with so many Austrian workmen, he tried to 
get information on English gardening, and asked if 
we get good orchids, and showed us some plants, like 
ice plants, he called Portutac flowers. From the 
gardens we passed on through the terraces, and had 
a peep at the Skittle Alley, where some students were 

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The Danube from Linz to Vienna 

amusing themselves ; near by were two towers, one 
round, the other twelve-sided, with great bastions, a 
remnant of the older buildings, and here we sat and 
rested again to the song of the birds, accompanied 
by the sounds of the roll of the balls. 

As we passed down to the town all was peacefully 
still, the quaint old gable roofs leading up to the vast 
line of the monastery, that with its domes and spires, 
now lit up by the setting sun, wholly dominated the 
town. 

Then suddenly the town was alert. The firemen 
were out ; they put their hose in the Roland well, 
ladders were run up to a house ; all the, till then, sleep- 
ing town came out to see. A little fat captain gave 
vigorous orders. The hose was rushed up on to a 
roof, and soon a good jet of water was passing over 
the house, and landing in the street on the other side 
of the way, and the brave firemen in red and black 
brass-bound helmets rescued imaginary fair maidens 
from imaginary flames, for it was only practice for 
the Fire Brigade. So we left the pleasant little town 
and went down to the arm of the Danube, and across 
the bridges, and enjoyed the picturesque view from 
below of the majestic pile of the buildings and 
the famous Loge and its archway before the double 
towers of the great church. 

The next morning we were in the library at 9 a.m., 
and had just time to drink in all the fascinating 
charm of this most beautiful home for books ere 
Prof. Fr. Schachinger arrived, and gave us a hearty 
greeting. Around us, in good bindings, were about 
70,000 to 80,000 volumes. Old globes and charts 
and folios lay on the tables, and in glass cases were 

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the choicest treasures, and all in such a beauteous 
home — this stately hall enriched and decorated with 
carving and inlaid woods, and the ceilings illuminated 
with paintings. Many a treasure of early printed 
books we were shown, and Gutenberg's work of 
1450-55; a German Bible, 1473; a Molker Mass 
Book of 1483 printed in Nuremberg ; a " Beda " 
MS. of the ninth century, and some most lovely 
missals ; a splendid example of the Koran. One 
could linger in this beau ideal of a library for days, 
but we passed onward through the Kaiser Zimmer 
(Emperor's room), where Marie Antoinette amongst 
others had stayed, and later, Napoleon in 1809, when 
the French troops drank from the abbey cellars to 
the tune of 50,000 to 60,000 pints of wine a day. 
When the Emperor Francis Joseph was married to 
the Empress Elizabeth, they stayed here. The 
dining-hall is a stately room ; from this we passed 
out to the great archway to get the view in the 
morning light ; now better understanding the build- 
ings, having the great church behind us, the library 
on the right, and the dining-hall on the left, then 
facing about to look upon the impressive scene of 
nature. But Melk had yet treasures of art wherewith 
to surprise us, and we were led into the Praelatie, 
and were shown some interesting portraits of past 
abbots, and in the house chapel, a fine expressive 
" Marie " of Albert Diirer. The present abbot is the 
president of the wine industry of the district, and, said 
our guide, " he has great possessions." Regret was 
expressed to us that the abbot was then in Vienna, 
and our regret was intensified when we learned that 
we could not see the famous Cross of Melk, for the 

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The Danube from Linz to Vienna 

abbot always held the key, and so we did not see this 
gem of metal work of the fourteenth century, of gold 
and silver, and pearls and jewels. But we were 
taken into the sacristy, and there we saw gems of 
ecclesiastical art, equal to those in Moscow and Rome 
— rich vestments and bejewelled mitres; crystal 
cups for the sacramental wine and water ; richly 
jewelled Bishop's croziers and staves ; Mass vest- 
ments of the fourteenth century, one having Christ 
and John and Marie on the one side, and on the other 
the Crucifix, and sun and moon ; other vestments 
of the sixteenth century — a rich storehouse of 
mediaeval craft and bejewelled needlework, full of 
beauty of workmanship. 

It was with regret we again went down the long 
slope into the little town, and bade adieu to the 
great buildings above. But the little church and 
its quaint monuments around its outer walls soon 
occupied our attention, and this, with the museum 
and its historic treasures, gave us further insight 
into the history of Melk, that dates from Roman 
days. A Benedictine monastery was established as 
far back as the eleventh century, and from that 
day to this Melk has lived in history, and often 
made history. 

We have lingered long in Melk to try and give some 
idea of the history, art, folklore, and legend there is 
stored up in so many of these abbeys and monasteries, 
and also in the castles, throughout Austria, and 
English visitors who show a respectful interest in 
any of these subjects, or a love of beauty or antiquity, 
are always most courteously received even without 
introductions. 

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Austria 

When Kriemhild halted here at Medeliche, as Melk 
was then called, she and her retinue were handed 
wine in rich cups of gold. We had seen the jewelled 
cups and had drank in great delights of the beauty 
of the place and its possessions. 



2^8 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE DANUBE THROUGH THE WACHAU TO KREMS 

WE sail away down the broad flood pi the 
Danube, but quickly the river narrows, 
the hills and rocky heights close in, 
and we are entering the romantic stretch 
of the river that is called the Wachau. Monasteries, 
ruins, and picturesque villages succeed each other. 
Schonbuhl or Schonbichel, with the old round tower 
and more modern square buildings, lies on a rocky 
eminence close to the river, the wooded and cultivated 
hills sloping around and above it. Then come 
wild, jagged, rocky heights, and high on a terrific 
height, overhanging a precipice, with apparently no 
access on either side save up this dizzy height, is 
perched the strong robber's nest of Aggstein, an 
astounding point, the castle seems in the sky. Below 
is a tiny village, crouching on the river's bank 
under this castle-crowned rock ; a wild, fearfully 
wild spot, yet very beautiful and full of hints of 
strange romance. 

Seen from below the castle seems small, but above, 
amidst its walls, there is ample room for housing 
retainers. The local legends do not fail in romance. 
We have referred to the hunger towers of these 
castles, as the ingenious device for getting rid of one's 
enemies ; but here, the fiercest robber knight of all, 
a certain Schreckenwald (Fear of the Forest) or 

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Schreck von Wald, was more refined in his revenge. 
He had his " rose garden," a slit, or ravine, deep in 
the mountain side, whence was no escape. Into 
this he lowered or hurled his victims. But one 
victim escaped even from the rose garden, a brave 
young knight who had worsted the Baron in war and 
in love. Having learned the secrets of the castle, he 
returned when an orgie had slackened the castle 
watch s and Schreckenwald was hung to a beam 
in the hall where he had been feasting, and 
the rose garden was planted with the chief of his 
retainers. 

To the lover of mediaeval lore or architecture, the 
castle is full of points. It dates from the twelfth 
to the fifteenth century, and the triple bridges and 
gates from the land side formed a famous defensive 
work. A monument to Viktor v. Scheffel, the poet, 
is now erected here. As we journey eastwards, every 
village and church and ruin has its legend. 

A strange geological curiosity, a gigantic wall of 
rock that seems to be leaping down the mountain, is 
called the " Teufelsmauer " or devil's wall. Satan 
meant to flood the whole valley by running this wall 
across the river, but an alert cock crowed vigorously 
and disturbed him, and woke the folks around. 
The cock is commemorated for his alertness, on the 
church steeple of St Johan. 

As we approach Spitz, the view is very romantic 
on either side. Here the vine is seen more widely 
cultivated, and Spitz makes a good halting-place for 
those who prefer a market town to a fashionable 
resort. There are scores of excursions from this spot, 
and the fruit industry can well be studied here ; in 

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The Danube to Krems 

the spring the cultivated slopes have a wondrous 
charm of blossom. 

The river now is fairly wide, but it soon closes in 
again with picturesque hills and with jagged rocks 
as we reach St Michael's, where everyone looks for the 
hares on the church roof, said to have been placed 
there to commemorate a great snow fall that allowed 
the hares to rove over the church. 

A turn in the river, and we are in sight of 
that castle that all English travellers eagerly look 
for. 

The story of disaster to a brave man, and his rescue 
by a restless faithful friend, through romantic 
stratagem, has held its sway over folk for 800 years ; 
and so as we approach Diirrenstein all eyes look out 
to see the walls of the castle where Richard the 
Lionheart was imprisoned, until he heard the song 
of the troubadour Blondel. 

The remnants of the castle are on a rocky height, 
and a line of rocks runs down to the river in irregular 
shapes. Above the castle the rocks are fantastic, 
so that it is difficult to tell rock from castle, or from 
the defensive wall that runs down to the little town 
beneath, with its old houses and pointed church tower. 
There is not much of the castle left. When I first 
saw it in 1873, I noted there were four tall corners 
remaining, but these appear more like the peaked rocks 
than built walls. Few people disembark here ; they 
are content with the passing glimpse of the castle 
from the river. On a packed boat, lately, I and my 
wife were the sole visitors to Diirrenstein. 

We passed up through a little tunnel in the rock, 
on which the town is built, to the " Gasthaus zum 

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Richard Lowenherz," literally the guesthouse of 
Richard the Lionheart. The very name satisfied 
us ; but above was a pleasant platform on the rocks, 
tables under flowering oleanders, and we found good 
feeding and excellent wine, and cleanly rooms at this 
guesthouse. 

We climbed to the castle up a rugged path, and 
we watched the peasants come in from their labour 
with their patient oxen, much as they did in Richard's 
time, and we heard the clack of the handloom, and 
the thud of the flail, as though we were in centuries 
long flown by. 

Part of the Keep, as well as isolated towers, remain. 
1 clambered into the heart of the castle where wall and 
rock is intermingled, and there are some windows 
and doors still left, overgrown with bushes. In one 
chamber, half rock, half dwelling, one might well 
conceive Richard to have been held in harsh durance. 
It is now a weird place, but a glorious view is had 
both up and down the river from this height, and the 
silence is intense. The great linking wall and watch 
towers running to the river are in good preservation 
and should be cared for. The east gate of the town 
is also intact, with people living over the gate, look- 
ing out over the vineyards that produce a famous 
wine, the Donau Perle (Pearl of the Danube). 

The little town itself is still as in the fifteenth 
or sixteenth century — great gateways to the 
houses with arms on the walls, vaulted rooms 
and narrow streets, and as the sun is setting, 
the deep-toned vesper bells ring out, and we can 
hear the bells of Rossatz in the distance, far across 
the river. 

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The Danube to Krems 

The strong old walls that flank the river side are 
the once handsome buildings of a chateau, and a 
Clarice or St Clara nunnery. Over the door of an 
Augustinian cloister is an imposing piece of work, 
with scroll and arabesque ornamentation. Inside 
the door are quaint carvings of figures in broad hats 
and bearing spiked clubs ; and also of Roman warriors, 
with spears and feathered helmets, and others in 
trunk hose — a curious medley. But the doors lead 
into a lovely little courtyard with trees and flowers, 
and a passage into the church, where are old frescoes 
and old doors richly carved. 

Many of the houses are mediaeval, on one we read 
the couplet — 

" So lang im Glas noch blinket der Wein 
Bruder lasst uns frohlich sein." 

Carpenters and peasants now live where noble and 
knight and wealthy burgher dwelt in mediaeval days. 
The frescoes in the Augustinian Church of the 
" Driving out the money changers " and " Christ in 
the Temple " are good ; there is also a fine picture, by 
Schmidt of Krems, of the beheading of Faustina, and 
the relics of the Faustina and the Holy Clement are 
richly enshrined. There is an immense deal in this 
church to detain the lover of mediaeval work ; 
to-day abbot and brothers and priests are gone, 
and only a Pfarrer serves in this once wealthy and 
important building, and in the town there are 
now only four hundred folk, of whom sixty are 
children. But the whole town breathes of the past, 
and it was with real regret we quitted our inn, that 
had been a part of the Augustinian Convent, the 

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walls being seven feet thick, and the great door dates 
from the fourteenth century. Truly Durrenstein 
has far more than the shades of Blondel and his im- 
prisoned master to hold and attract the traveller, 
and we leave much of its history unsaid. As we 
sailed on down the Danube flood we had an excellent 
retrospect of Durrenstein, with its peak on peak of 
rock, and its walls that enclose the town. 

But the Danube gives but little time for 
retrospect. Ahead on a high hill is seen another 
monastery. An enormous mass of buildings, with 
its red roof and turrets backed by wooded hills. 
It is the Benedictine Abbey of Gottweig, and 
we must disembark at Mautern to visit this 
further treasure-house of books and over a 
thousand MSS. Engravings, coins, and other 
art treasures are here also in rich abundance. 
When I first saw Mautern there was a picturesque 
old wooden bridge, with a crucifix upon it, linking 
Mautern with Stein; to-day there is a stiff iron 
bridge that spans the broad river, but the old 
square ruined tower and the churches, one with a 
square tower, the other with an Eastern dome of 
the onion type, still remain. 

Now the scene ahead is totally changed, and all is 
calm and flat, and thickly wooded islands block the 
view down stream. But the Eastern domes and 
high Romanesque towers of Stein, and the continuing 
houses of the little town of Und linking it to Krems 
all plead a halt ; so we disembark at Krems, from 
whence to study the district ; for all around in 
streets and buildings are interesting relics of fasci- 
nating history. Let us print the old witticism : 

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The Danube to Krems 

Stein und Krems are three towns. The catch 
lies in the name of the little town "Und," really 
"and" in German. Stein "and" Krems are three 
towns. 

On the Danube, as everywhere, the tourist stream 
has its special halting-places, but these towns are not 
tourist-fashionable, so there is no crowd of vehicles or 
hotel touts to worry the traveller. We found it a hot 
walk in the month of July from the boat to the town 
of Krems, but there was a pleasant avenue of trees 
to give welcome shade. We halted at the " Golden 
Stag." The names of the inns in these old towns are 
always reminiscent of old life. We soon found that 
Krems is a veritable storehouse of bygone life. The 
streets are bright and clean, and the shops up to 
date ; but the quaint corners, the old gates and 
towers, make us halt constantly. Modern amenities 
are not neglected ; there is a pretty park with 
beautiful flowers and fountains, and near this lies 
the new part of Krems that is rapidly developing. 
But, alas, some interesting old work has lately been 
destroyed. When there, in 1908, at the south-east 
end of the town, one saw some old houses being 
destroyed that were well illustrated by Sgraffito 
work — a Star and the I.H.S. with two figures, and 
above, a crucifix ; query was this representing the 
Trinity ; above was the date 1561. Below were 
scenes from the Prodigal Son. The Prodigal with 
the pigs in a village ; and the next scene, on the 
right, was a feast, bringing in the jugs and dishes, 
and the musicians entering. On the left the first 
scene was gone, the only word left was " Bruder " 
(brother) ; of the middle scene some dancing feet 

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only were left, and the upper raised part was just 
being obliterated with new plaster, but the words 
were still left, " Vom Verlorenen Sohn." So they were 
destroying most valuable work that was well worth 
preserving, and that proved how interesting a town 
Krems must have been in 1561. 

Just below this house was a bridge (iron, alas), 
over a brook, and from here one could see the site 
of the old town and the towers and walls ; and 
it was deeply interesting to dive into the centre 
of the town through its narrow streets with old 
towers and arches and oriel windows, and many fine 
old houses. 

The Pfarrkirche has much within it of real artistic 
value ; it dates from the eleventh century, but was 
rebuilt in the seventeenth century. The pulpit is a 
fine piece of carved work, illustrating the conversion 
of St Paul ; and the frescoes of the virtues are good. 
A quaint spot surrounded by old houses is the 
Frauenberg, on which stands the church of this 
name, older than the present building of the 
Pfarrkirche ; over the door are the words : " Ora pro 
nobis mater misericordia 1477 " ; it was rebuilt at 
this date after the Hussites " profanation " of the 
older building, but the Jesuits in 1616 restored 
it. 

There is good work in this church by the famous 
artist, Kremser Schmidt, whose work we met with at 
Melk and elsewhere. There is a great deal of excellent 
work both in painting and carving, and the church 
is a good example of thirteenth-century work. Out- 
side, between the buttresses, the life of Christ is 
depicted, the figures being life size, and the painted 

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The Danube to Krems 

background represents Jerusalem. From the church 
is a fine view of the vineyards all round Krems, and 
from the tower a wider view of river and landscape. 
High up in the tower lives the watchman, who strikes 
a bell every quarter of an hour, and rings a bigger 
bell, the " Braunglocke," for a quarter of an hour 
in early morning to call the vineyard workers to their 
task ; in old days he rang also to call them to break- 
fast and prayer. A day could well be spent in and 
around this church, so full is it of quaint art and 
history. 

We found that another historic church had suc- 
cumbed to curious uses, but was now partly rescued 
for a worthy aim by having one half of it turned into 
a museum. This was the Dominican Church, the 
western half, the church of the laity, is the museum ; 
the eastern half, the church of the order, is used as a 
theatre, and it looked sad to see the tawdry scenery 
lying about in a noble old religious building, for this 
church was re-built in 1444, after a fire in 1410. We 
had to get the key of the western half from the Herr 
Propst (i.e. Prior), Dr Anton Kerschbaumer, who 
really was the founder of the museum in 1889, and 
who saved the old church from being a corn ware- 
house. His own house was most quaint and full of 
treasures. We found the nave of the church made 
a noble museum, the collection, although so young, 
being really fascinating and, historically, of great 
value, but more space is required to get good 
organisation. 

In 1897 part of a building in the old cloisters was 
added to the church for the Palaeontological section, 
a collection of real importance ; and the Palseo- 

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lithic and Neolithic divisions are also most important, 
containing some remarkable stone weapons. The 
" Hundsteige " collection alone has 20,000 implements 
and weapons. This find is said to be the richest 
Palaeolithic find in Lower Austria, and prove these 
men of primitive days were by no means without 
culture. 

In the bronze exhibit are some very beautiful 
examples of torques, weapons, etc., and one bronze 
sword that is a superb gem. When they built the 
new bridge over the Danube, urns and other pre- 
historic articles were found, and of later work, 
especially Roman, there are a crowd of articles, some 
of peculiar interest. 

There is another section in this museum, illustrating 
the guild life of mediaeval days, that is full of charm ; 
the rich banners and insignia of so many trades are 
here. The cask binders' banner, that is illustrated 
after a painting by Kremser Schmidt, has Noah plant- 
ing the vine, a Rubens-like woman treading out the 
grapes in a tub, and a man at work on the casks ; 
another man is pouring out the new wine, and all is 
artistically harmonised. There is rich glass, books 
and MSS., old punishment instruments, and a crowd 
of objects that will detain the enthusiast for many 
a day. 

From Krems it is but a pleasant walk through 
Und to Stein. To-day there are houses all the way. 
And in Stein we again meet with Kremser Schmidt. 
In spite of his name the people of Stein claim that he 
was born there, and that the beautiful frescoes in the 
Rathaus are his work. From Stein we can cross the 
bridge to Mautern, and so on foot, or by aid of rail 

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The Danube to Krems 

or steamer, explore the whole district, with Krems as 
headquarters. 

Of history Krems has had a surfeit. From pre- 
historic days on through the days when the Romans 
came with their swift-moving boats on this Danube 
frontier. Then came the Slavs, and the Bajuvaren, 
i.e. Bavarians. In 995 Krems is named as a town, 
so that its claim to be the oldest town in Lower 
Austria is established, Vienna only being named a 
town in 1037 and Tuln in 1014. The oldest seal of 
the town has the Bohemian Hon of King Ottakar, with 
a vine stem and bush ; this was succeeded by the 
Hapsburg seal, the Hon being displaced by a helmet 
with a " bush " of peacock's feathers issuing from it. 
Husite and Hungarian attacked the town, and the 
Turkish invasion injured it ; and in later days it suf- 
fered from the Swedes and its conquest by the French ; 
and, as though war were not sufficient evil, attacks 
by nature's forces — ice and floods, hail, pest, and 
fire — have terribly assailed and tried it. To-day it is 
a picturesque flourishing town, and is doing much 
to benefit and advance its people under a peaceful 
rule. Its educational institutions, its trade and 
commercial and agricultural schools are doing good 
work, but are not so perfect as in some other parts of 
the Empire. 

v Ere leaving Krems we had a hot walk up through 
vineyards and round the walls that climb up the hill- 
sides, with their watch towers, to find the " Mandl 
ohne Kopf," the little man without a head. It is a 
curious headless figure in armour on a wall in a garden 
near one of the round towers. Like the " Ring " in 
Nuremberg, those who have not seen the " Mandl " 

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Austria 

have not seen Krems. The figure represents a 
Swedish major who vented his wrath against holy 
pictures and images in the Frauenberg church. 
And on the feast of St Ignatius (July 31), whose 
statue he split in two, he was reconnoitering near this 
tower, when a shot from the Austrian forces on the 
Danube island took off his head, and he is there to 
this day, headless, on the wall. 



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CHAPTER XXVII 

THE DANUBE FROM KREMS TO THE AUSTRIAN FRONTIER 

IT is with regret we leave Krems, for it is the 
eastern gate out of the pleasant district so 
full of natural beauty and historic lore, the 
Wachau. 
Now, soon all around is flat ; great islands break 
up the river, which is very wide, and we are quickly 
looking out over the Tulln plains. Tulln 

" Ein Ort am Donau flusse der liegt in Osterland, 
Und ist geheissen Tulme " 

So sings the Niebelungen Lied, and it was to " Tulme " 
that King Ezel rode forth to meet his bride. Small 
wonder the " Staub der Strasse " (the dust of the 
route) was never still. For Christian and heathen 
were with him. Russians, Poles, Greeks, Wallachs, 
Danes, Thuringians, some with twelve hundred men, 
others with a thousand. It must have been a brave 
sight around Kriemhild's spacious tent on this plain 
of Tulln in the sixth century, if this Lied history is 
to be credited. In earlier days the Romans had 
established a camp here, and Tulln as a border town 
has had an exciting history. 

The river becomes shallow and soundings are con- 
stant as we steam ahead, but on the right we quickly 
see a line of low hills ; it is the Wiener Wald, the 
Vienna forest, that the keen sight of the famous 

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Burghermeister Lueger has secured for ever as a 
mighty garden city and pleasure ground for the 
capital. But there is yet a romantic castle to attract 
us before we reach Vienna. Greifenstein is seen on 
the side of a wooded hill. There is plenty of legend 
and romance clinging to Greifenstein. A mark on 
the rock of a griffin's claw is said to have given the 
name to the spot. A more poetical story is told of 
the unexpected return of the lord of the castle from 
the Crusades ; and behold his wife met him arrayed 
in her best, and her beautiful hair in long golden 
plaits decked with ribbons. She was too beautiful ; 
how did she know he was coming ? His jealousy 
was aroused and he called the castle confessor to him, 
but the confessor gave no satisfactory reply, so the 
enraged lord hurled him into the Hunger Tower, and 
his lady's entreaties for mercy confirming his suspicion, 
he revenged himself upon her by cutting off her long 
love locks. He swore he would never release the 
confessor until the stones of the stairway were worn 
so deep that he could lay the locks of hair in the hole. 
So all who ascended and descended this stairway out 
of pity for their priest, said, " Greif an der Stein " 
(pounce on the stone), and soon a hole was worn, and 
one day the lord, descending, tripped in this hole, and 
was picked up dead at the foot of the steps. 

As though to sustain an interest in this part of the 
river until we enter the portals of Vienna, there now 
comes in sight, on the right hand shore, an immense 
mass of buildings, with domes and towers, surmount- 
ing a high hill. A small town in itself this great 
building. Bigger, if anything, than Melk is this impos- 
ing Augustinian Monastery of Klosterneuburg. Here 

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The Danube to Austrian Frontier 

also are rich collections of art treasures, about 40,000 
volumes of books, and no less than 13,000 MSS. Here, 
as in so many abbeys, the cellars and the gigantic 
casks, perhaps more noticed than the MSS., are one 
of the sights for the curious. The wine of the 
district is a good wine, and the monks know its 
value. 

But we are now again in Vienna, and if we wish to 
continue our journey through Lower Austria to the 
Eastern frontier, we can sleep on board and so be 
ready for the early start in the morning, going on 
board over night at the Prater Quay. 

The commencement of the journey is through a 
somewhat montonous flat country. Deeply wooded 
islands of great size break up the volume of water 
into many channels. As we look back we see the 
smoke of the great city lying over the plain, and catch 
glimpses of St Stephen's lofty spire. Soldiers are 
drilling on the banks. Very soon we are passing the 
greatest of these islands, Lobau, whence Napoleon 
in 1809 passed onwards to the crushing defeat of 
the Austrians at Wagram, on to the peace of Znaim, 
that pleasant town where we halted in Moravia. 

We pass villages in quick succession, the banks 
of the river still being very flat, and reach the 
market-town of Fischamend. 

In ordinary times the journey down this part of 
the river is uneventful, but the Danube has its moods 
and its passions, and in flood time and in drought, 
even on this part of the voyage, one may be in dubiety 
as to progress. In the severe drought of 1911 the 
great saloon steamers could not go up to the Prater 
Quay, so the smaller boats were utilised, and 
s 273 



Austria 

passengers were told that the saloon boats would 
meet them at Fischamend ; but on arriving there, no 
smoke was seen of the bigger boat, and the soundings 
gave only just enough water in that great wide river 
for the lesser craft, and great pebble banks were 
visible everywhere, and with frequent soundings we 
crept along and were soon hours behind time. 

We are now in a district that would well repay 
a long halt by the classical student, the province 
of Pannonia, which Tiberius conquered, so making the 
Danube the frontier of the Empire. 

Vindobona (Vienna) was on the western boundary 
of this province, and Carnuntum, the capital, influenced 
the whole of this district, where rich have been the 
finds of Roman remains. 

The fact that it was here that the Stoic 
Philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, wrote his Meditations, 
and that Diocletian and other emperors lived, 
makes the ground deeply interesting. The Vandals 
settled here in the fourth century, and after the 
death of Attila in this province in 453, the 
East Goths occupied the district. At Deutsch- 
Altenburg, the first important town we come to, 
the remains of this important occupation can be 
studied, for in 1904 the Emperor Francis Joseph I. 
opened the Carnuntum Museum, that contains a rich 
collection of Roman antiquities, and the amphitheatre 
and baths, and other remains of the Roman capital 
have been opened up in recent excavations. At 
Petronell still stands one of the great Roman gateways, 
a massive arch with the characteristic brick, or rather 
tile work, worth halting for in this frontier town. 
Above it rises a hill with a path to its summit called 

274 



The Danube to Austrian Frontier 

the Hiittelberg, because the folk made it as they 
made those hills we saw in Cracow and Lemberg, by 
carrying up the mould in their hats. 

The peasants on board and their dress tell us we 
are nearing the Hungarian frontier, and soon ahead, 
down the broad stream, we see rising above the plain- 
lands a high, flattened, conical hill with a great fortress 
upon it. A town with a church tower clusters on the 
river bank beneath this hill, and the great walls and 
square towers of the castle protect, as it were, the 
walls of the town that runs down to the river-side. 
For a time, as we sail on between willow-clad islands, 
this hill is lost to sight, and over the islands rises a 
high, crooked peaked mass of hill, all wooded, with a 
ruin surmounting it, and as we come round a bend in 
the river we see that this second castle is on a rock 
some 200 feet high, percipitous to the river, and with 
a guarding wall with round and octagonal watch- 
towers ensuring the land side from attack. This is 
the fortress of Theben ; a double castle, its two great 
bastions at the gateways, with embattled walls con- 
necting them, overlooking the little town beneath. 
As we go round again we see the other castle of 
Hamburg, and this castle of Theben on either shore 
of the Danube command the two bends of the river, 
having a great view on either side to west and east, 
and from the north a river falls into the Danube ; it 
is the March that forms the frontier line of Austria 
and Hungary. At Hamburg we must end our voyage 
down this romantic, fascinating river, but still romance 
clings to us, for that ruin on the summit of the broad- 
capped hill is the Heunenburg or Huns Castle, where 
Kriemhild and King Etzel halted with all their retinue 

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Austria 

for the night, after staying eighteen days in Vienna 
for the wedding festivities. Hamburg, on the south 
shores of the Danube, Heimburg as it is called in 
the Lied, formed the entry into King Etzel's land, 
and Hainburg has been fought for throughout the 
ages. Celt, Huns, German, and Turk have all 
struggled for its possession, but since 1490 it has been 
Austrian, and it is a fitting and poetical spot whence 
to bid adieu to the great river Danube in this book 
on Austria. 

We are in sight again of that great mountain 
chain the Carpathians, that by its vast line of heights 
links us up with the Giant Mountains, the northern 
frontier of the Empire ; by the Danube we are linked 
with the eastern and western frontiers, and if we take 
the old Roman Danube road we reach the Adriatic, 
and from this historic ground we take a flying course 
south-eastwards, and land on the northern shores of 
Lake Garda, for our tour, through the Tyrol, perhaps 
to English readers the best known province of 
Austria. 



276 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THROUGH THE TYROL FROM LAKE GARDA TO TRENT 
(TRIENT OR trento) 

AGAIN the scene changes from river and 
rocky heights, vast monasteries and 
castled crags, to the shores of a southern 
lake. 

" Kennst du das Land wo die Citronen bluhn," 
wrote Goethe, when he journeyed on the shores of 
this lovely lake of Garda, and truly this town of 
Riva inspires poetry, the south-eastern outpost of 
Austria lying nestled beneath high hills that shadow 
the soft, turquoise blue crystal waters of the lake. 
Riva is the southern point of the province of the 
Tyrol, that has become the pleasure-ground of the 
world. Innsbruck is the most northerly town ; the 
Engadine bounds the west, and on the east the little 
town of Toblach is on the confines of Tyrol. 

Of the importance of the Tyrol to the health and 
pleasure-seeking people of the world, one is promptly 
convinced by a glance at the very long list of health 
resorts comprised in a schedule arranged according 
to their heights above sea-level. No less than 351 
places are so registered, ranging from 1300 to 9400 
feet above the sea, and scores of these hundreds of 
places are well-known resorts. 

But Riva does not appeal to the lover of crisp 
mountain air, but rather to the lover of soft zephyrs 

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Austria 

and the lazy life, although close at hand there is 
ample scope for mountain adventure. 

In walking from the Italian frontier to Riva, we 
pass through some very beautiful scenes. The mighty 
crags rise crag over crag, high above the lake. In 
places the hill-sides are walled up in terraces for the 
lemon gardens. The rocks are of reddish granite hue, 
and the lake is shut in on either hand by precipitous 
heights of about 3000 feet ; one great peak is isolated, 
and below this is the pretty fall of the Ponale with the 
ruins of a castle. The road runs along the ledge of 
rock, winding round the vast buttresses, one needle 
of rock springing up at least 3000 feet, and the view 
of the little town of Riva as we come round is very 
charming. 

We descend from the height to the level of the lake, 
and enter a hotel with a courtyard surrounded with 
arches, and a garden with cypress trees and flowers ; 
before us is the mirror-like water of the lake ; around, 
the high, grey-peaked rocks tower up, and just above 
is the great square tower of the castle of the Scaligers, 
and half way up a rocky steep is a white castellette, 
with a round-fronted embattled tower, and other 
outlying walls and a tourelle. 

On the lake the little white-sailed pleasure-boats 
and the greater fishing-boats with yellow sails glide 
past, and it is pleasant to sit amidst the flowers and 
dream, or to take a plunge in the crystal waters of 
the lake as a revivifier after a warm day's walking. 
The district between Riva and Trent is a rich district 
in many ways, both historically and for its southern 
vegetation. Here, Indian corn, and olives, and vines 
grow profusely, proving the variety of life there is 

278 



Through the Tyrol to Trent 

m the Tyrol, when this district is contrasted with 
the mountain heights we shall shortly traverse. 

\It was in the autumn of 1880 that I first walked 
and rode up through this district by the old diligence 
route. As we approached Arco, the old castle on an 
isolated black rock seemed to block the route, some 
400 feet above the pleasant town, that to-day is a 
favourite health resort, amidst cypress and olives, 
orange and lemon gardens, and palms. Here is a 
school to promote the local olive wood industry. We 
follow up the course of the river Sarca, passing the 
village of Dro, most picturesque with its southern 
type of cottages, and then crossing a bridge beneath 
which the stream rushes and foams, divided by an 
islet ; beyond on a barren rock we see the castle of 
Drena, and beyond this we pass through a wild, 
beautiful district. At one spot there are great blocks 
of rock, all sliding down into the grey-green waters of 
the Sarca. Peasants pass by on their asses, or leading 
patient, meek oxen, with their great wooden yokes, 
through a rich country of maize and mulberry, olives 
and vines, that are trailed along from pole to pole. 
Then the scene changes and we pass through a wild 
district of stone and cliffs, with a great natural giant 
wall at the top, through which the road pierces. Then 
again at the little village of Le Sarche we cross the 
Sarca that comes rushing in from the mountains that 
surround us on all sides. We soon arrive at the pretty 
little lake Toblino, with its picturesque chateau. 
The road winds round the lake, that on one side lies 
in the basin of the grey limestone hills, and we get 
good views of the castle, its round tower, and 
defensive walls. 

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Austria 

A good halting-spot is on the bridge that spans 
the stream between the two lakes, to take in the 
beauty of the scene around. We pass in through the 
village of Padernione, and then climb the hill-side 
and look down on the lake below, with its castle in 
the centre, the rich, luxuriant vegetation all around, 
and above the barren, craggy heights. 

Then comes a piece of road that to the pedestrian 
is as an oven, between two walls of rock. We are 
not far from Dante's Inferno, and this is a taste of 
it ; but we get a peep between the rocks, of lake, and 
castle that tells us paradise here is below ; but we 
press on to Vezzano, where, under the welcome shade 
of the vine leaves, our host produces an excellent 
little dinner, especially a soup with Knodeln 
(dumplings), that a German student with whom 
we were walking devoured voraciously. The fruit 
here was exceptionally good, the wine heady as 
this southern wine is apt to be. The route 
after Vezzano is very picturesque, it winds on over 
a village, climbing a height, and then the little lake 
and village of Terlago is seen far below us ; another 
of these mountain lakes, like a basin with white shores, 
appears, and ahead is the village of Cadine. 

The pass has led us a little north of Trent, and 
now we bear southward, to the fort built in the rock, 
that guards the entrance to the valley of Vela, with 
rocks overhanging and sheltering it, and water running 
beneath. One great rock mass stands alone, and 
water forces its way around either side. The view 
ahead of the grey, cloud-capped peaks is very fine, and 
below are the white village and waterfalls and caves. 
It is a district full of charm and of Nature's choicest 

280 




llii: SCENE WHICH INSPIRED DANTE'S INFERNO,-- I 111. LARIN] 1>1 MARCO 
NEAR fRIESTE 



Through the Tyrol to Trent 

compositions. We cross a little bridge beneath which 
the stream rushes, and then we get a peep of the open 
view beyond. A waterfall dashes beneath the arched 
road, and as the view opens out the river Adige comes 
in sight, and the road winds down between high peaked 
rocks, and then the rich wide valley of Trent comes 
into view, and the white town lying under the opposite 
hills, its white houses climbing here and there the 
lower-wooded slopes. A mass of castellated rock 
stands isolated in the valley, surrounded with vines, 
and blocks the view as we enter the town of Trent 
(Trento or Trient) and pass on over the bridge to the 
centre of the city. 

This tramp is so exactly the opposite to the usual 
type of walk one expects to hear of when a tramp 
in the Tyrol is mentioned, that I have given it some- 
what in detail, to show what a strange variety of 
scenery and surrounding nature one can have in this 
favourite province. Of mountain climbs over ice 
and snow, amidst morraines and crevasses, there are 
thousands in Tyrol — we shall meet with them ere 
long — but Trent is too interesting and historic a 
town to rush away from, without a fairly lengthy 
halt. 

The tiny railway that runs from Riva to Mori, 
and then joins on to the main line to Trent, passes 
through a district equally interesting as the road we 
walked, and a digression should be made to visit the 
castle of Lizzana, where Dante lived for some time. It 
is said that he gleaned an idea for his Inferno from a 
savagely wild scene that is near here — a great sea of 
rocks hurled hither and thither, in most awful, awe- 
inspiring disorder. The little train crawls and twists 

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Austria 

slowly through one part of this terrible labyrinth, 
with just space for its passage between the great dark 
masses of rock. It is in Canto XII. of the Inferno 
that Dante writes : 

" The place whereto we came to make descent 
Was Alpine rough, and no man's eyes could bear 
The further cause that made me ill content. 

"As this side Trent the ruin lieth, where 
Was struck Adiges river in the side 
Through earthquake, or supports that yielded there." 

Certainly this pass is supremely savage and worthy 
of being an aid to the poet's idea of an entrance to 
Hell ; perchance it is the moraine of some mighty 
glacier, or the fact that a town was buried here in 
the ninth century by a mountain slide may account 
for this wild freak of nature. 

By this route we pass through Rovereto, where 
to-day the grape cure is practised under specialists. 
The position of this town is very romantic, and 
although in sight of the snow peaks it is a good 
winter resort. 

From the balcony of the Imperial Hotel in Trent, 
looking out over the pleasant gardens, with the 
imposing statue of Dante in the foreground 
embowered in trees and flowers, one can trace 
most of the principal buildings of the city. The 
towers and domes and such bits as the jewel-like 
morsel of the Torre Verde, or Green Tower, all 
speak of its history that goes back to pre-Roman 
days. 

The epoch that its name at once recalls is that of 
the sixteenth century, when the great Council of 

282 










Iw-fw 



A HACK STREET I\ I'RENT I 



Through the Tyrol to Trent 

Trent was held. The church in which the Council 
sat is much to-day, with very slight alteration, as it 
was then, and a picture of the Council, preserved in 
the church, shows the semi-circular arrangement of 
seats and the general ordering of the Council, 
that sat intermittently, under three Popes, from 
1545 to 1563. Many of the seats bear the arms 
of the families who occupied them. The cathedral is 
a fine Romanesque building, with two great lions 
over the north door that are curious. Many of the 
streets are delightfully quaint, and full of colour, with 
the old arches and palaces. 

The great Castello Buon Consiglio, formerly a 
palace of ecclesiastical princes, is most interesting 
and quaint, and as we emerge from this, that is shown 
by an under officer, as the building is now used as a 
barracks, we are in a lovely part of the old town, with 
the Torre Verde as the central gem. Excellent music 
can be heard in Trent. On one occasion we were 
fortunate enough to hear one of the most celebrated 
bands of the Austrian army, and its rendering of 
very varied types of music was most masterly, and 
delicately powerful. Both strings and brass were 
good, and the men were also good vocalists, singing 
to their own accompaniment. On another occasion 
we heard a good rendering of "Aida," with perhaps 
a little too much forte expression through the entire 
performance. 

In these towns the museums should never be 
missed. They are never a dull, dusty, collection 
of heterogeneous articles, and here the Roman 
remains and MSS., are exceptionally valuable ; 
there are also educational establishments, including 

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Austria 

commercial and industrial schools that are worth 
visiting. 

Innumerable are the excursions that can be made 
from Trent. The Tourist Information Societies, 
can be relied upon for useful data for ordinary 
travellers or climbers. 



284 




ROS] m;ari en FROM I III. I'SCH vminthal 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE TYROL FROM TRENT TO MERAN AND CORTINA 

TYROL is beyond all the other principalities 
and provinces of Austria the district for 
the pedestrian ; but the railways to-day 
quickly bear the walker to the district 
he chooses for his excursions, and as he travels to 
reach his destination, snowy peaks and glacier heights 
plead to him to halt for exploration. 

The railway running from Trent to convey us to 
the enticing spot for Alpinists, Cortina, runs due north 
to Bozen, where a branch line leads away westward 
to Meran, the main line passing on northward to 
Franzensfeste, where the eastern route runs us down 
to Toblach for Cortina. 
\ But these railway journeys are never monotonous. 
As we left Trent on one occasion, on crossing the 
Avisio, that is well described by the guide books as 
a torrent, we saw where this mountain stream had 
rushed down and carried away whole houses in its 
fury. It is but an hour's run to Bozen, and the line 
passes through cliffs, and then along peaceful fruitful 
valleys, where little white townlets he around up- 
rising churches, campaniles, the metal domes of which 
sparkle in the sunlight. After passing Auer the 
snow peaks come in sight, and on one point stands out 
a fine old- walled castle, four square, with four round, 

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Austria 

towers at each corner, and then Botzen, or Bozen, is 
seen. 

Bozen, the old mediaeval town, is now linked 
across the river Talfer with the rising town of Gries, 
formerly a village, now a growing health resort ; but 
Bozen has much besides its mere position to attract 
the traveller and student. To the English-speaking 
public it is best known as the starting-point for tours 
amongst the Dolomites. 

Although Bozen is in the midst of this ice and crag 
climbing district yet it is only 850 feet above sea level, 
and it is the home of a great flower and fruit industry — 
peaches, apples, pears, walnuts, figs, cherries and roses 
and violets, and other flowers are here in profusion, 
and are scientifically cultivated and sent far and wide 
over Europe. It is gloriously hot in summer, but one 
can quickly be high up in the mountains to such a 
resort as Oberbozen, over 4000 feet above sea level, 
and get the crisp, cool air and magnificently glorious 
views of the range of the Dolomites, the Oetztaler, 
and Brenta and other groups. 

Nature can give few grander spectacles than to 
look upon Rosengarten at sunset from Oberbozen, or 
from Klobenstein, which can also be reached by the 
same mountain rail that brought us to the Oberbozen. 
The only drawback to these marvellous, glorious views 
is the sense of dejection, from the conviction that it is 
impossible to know even the marvels that nature 
has to give in this circle around us, of jagged, strange- 
formed peaks, and vast height masses, mist veiled 
and ice scored, glowing in such beauteous hues in the 
waning light ; the snow fields tinted with roseate 
hues, and below the lesser slopes in grey shadow, dark 

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The Tyrol to Meran and Cortina 

with the pines. There are scores of excursions and 
mountain expeditions around Bozen, and the journey 
by road to Toblach and on to Cortina is a glorious one. 
One of the streets in Bozen is named after Defregger, 
the artist whose powerful work has so illuminated 
the history of the Tyrol, and the life of its people ; 
we shall touch upon this life and its history when 
halting at the capital of the principality, Innsbruck. 
In Bozen the intellectual life and its business develop- 
ment is aided by schools that assist the special needs 
of the district, a good new museum and plenty of 
music, and, of course the hotels are good as through- 
out the Tyrol ; we shall be able, at Innsbruck, to 
give a reason for this quality in hotel management in 
the Tyrol. 

It is but a short run by rail to Meran, that lies a 
little higher than Bozen, being nearly 1100 feet 
above sea level. The former villages of Obermais and 
Untermais are now joined to Meran, and the beautiful 
promenades by the slopes of the Passer stream are 
the resort of the invalids who flock to Meran for lung 
and other complaints. It is exceptionally an air- cure 
resort, and everything possible is done to secure quiet 
pleasure and comfort for the invalid. 

The mountains around rise up to 10,000 feet, and 
these screen Meran from nearly all winds, except the 
southern, and the register of sunshine for ten years 
was 197 full sunshine, 32 slight sunshine, and only 
10 rainy and 7 snowy days during the autumn season. 

For the vigorous Alpinist there is plenty of work 
near Meran, and throughout Tyrol sport of all sorts 
can be enjoyed in summer and winter. 

There is one interesting spectacular speciality at 

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Austria 

Meran that can be seen on a smaller scale in many 
towns and villages in Tyrol, but here at Meran is the 
famous Folk's Theatre with a company of over 300 
peasants, performing local plays illustrating Tyrolean 
life. The historical life that has passed through such 
noble episodes, and the life of the Aim and villages hid 
away in the eternal silences beneath the snowy peaks. 

The Tyrol is a land of mountain peak often 
castle crowned as at Sigmundskron, and mountain 
lake. To look upon a contour map of the principality 
is to look upon a sea of giant heights and slow moving 
glaciers, evolving a territory of sublime beauty. And 
these heights in our days have given tasks to the 
climber that in former days were deemed impossible. 
As a writer on mountaineering lately expressed it ; 
this generation " has ascended precipices which our 
forerunners called perpendicular, and descended gullies 
which before were deemed death traps." 

But we must quit this district of Meran and Bozen, 
that gives ample scope for pedestrian and climber, 
and travel up the old railway en route for the Brenner 
Pass to the fortress of Franzensfeste, whence we branch 
away eastward through the Pusterthal for Toblach 
and Cortina. 

We are traversing Tyrol to give glimpses of its 
inexhaustible store of mountain resorts and endless 
variation of scenes. As we leave Bozen we see the 
grey river rushing between the rich vine-covered hills. 
The rail twists and winds between rocky cliffs, past 
wooden mills and wooden bridges, on over mountain 
torrents that hiss down into the seething river. 

At Klausen is a wonderfully picturesque spot, with 
the white towers of the castle of Sabiona on a 

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The Tyrol to Meran and Cortina 

precipice above the little town, a castle that goes 
back to Roman days, and the tower has quaint bits 
of mediaeval work to detain the traveller. The river, 
the Eisack, here is deeper and calmer, having some 
restful moments in its headlong strenuous career. 
We cross it ere we arrive at Brixen, lying in a wide 
upland, the hills receding and opening out wider views. 
Here the scene begins to change from a southern to 
a northern aspect. The houses that cluster round the 
town, that is dominated by the little white double 
church towers, with dark domes, are of the Northern 
Tyrol type, with great stones on the roofs, and the 
vines instead of being trailed along from post to post 
in pretty southern fashion, are planted in rows as 
on the Rhine. Pines cover the upper slopes, and 
beeches and chestnuts the lower banks of the hills. 
All these towns breathe of bygone ages, the cathedral 
and the Johannis Church carry us back beyond 
mediaeval days ; but there is a most up to date modern 
curative life carried on here, and for pedestrian work 
Brixen is a splendid centre. 
Franzensfeste is but a couple of miles from Brixen, 

I and as we enter we see the massive old forts that 
defended this pass in bygone days. We are now 
2476 feet above sea level, and we bear away here to 

i the eastward down the famous Pusterthal, that leads 
down to the Drave or Ober Drau valley, and so links 
us up again to the romantic district of the Drave and 
Gail valleys where we halted in Carinthia. 

The ramifications and valleys leading from this 
main valley are simply inexhaustible, and mountain 
work of every type is plentiful enough to satiate the 
most determined climber. From Bruneck there is 

T 289 



Austria 

now an electric railway that in an hour bears one to 
Taufers, and from here a score of excursions can be 
made. The spacious old castle so picturesquely laid 
out, as it were on a rocky perch, with its round 
Tourelles and square massive keep, has some excellent 
architectural work, and is most imposing amidst the 
mountains. 

But the town of Toblach is perhaps the favourite 
halting-place for the ordinary tourist, or for the 
mountaineer, the latter going on to Cortina. 

This little town of Toblach lies is an upland valley 
4133 feet above sea level, and in winter and summer 
it is full of life. 

Cortina, or to give the full name, Cortina d'Ampezzo, 
is but about nineteen miles south of Toblach, and this 
has become one of the most favourite resorts, also 
both in summer and winter, and especially for rock and 
mountain work. I will let a friend who has climbed 
most of the difficult heights in Tyrol, Switzerland, and 
the Pyrenees speak of the work around Cortina. 

" The village of Cortina lies at an elevation of about 
4000 feet, and is most picturesquely situated in the 
Ampezzo valley. 

"The route from Toblach leads through a wild 
gorge, passes the light green tinted waters of the little 
Diirrensee. where the valley opens out, presenting a 
striking picture of mountains and glacier backed with 
the huge, jagged, serrated mass of Monte Cristallo. 

" The hamlet has a population of only about 800 
inhabitants, and yet here lads may be seen painting 
and drawing from nature, making filagree work, wood- 
mosaic, and other artistic objects in the cabinet-mak- 
ing school, where the highest art of the wood worker 

290 



The Tyrol to Meran and Cortina 

is taught ; and, as at Zakopane, there is also a good 
lace-working industry of women, and the artistic 
quality of the work is of a high order. 

" Within a radius of five miles are a dozen first-class 
mountains, ranging in height from 8000 to 10,600 
feet, offering climbs unsurpassed in difficulty by any 
in the Dolomites — noted as it is for the severity of its 
rock climbs, many presenting the appearance of 
colossal church spires, pinnacles and towers, which 
catch the flush of evening light until they glow as 
burnished copper. The place also affords glorious 
opportunity for those who enjoy excursions and 
promenades of less exacting and less exciting 
character. 

" Speaking generally the climbs are only suitable for 
experts ; many of them present no serious difficulty to 
Alpinists, others are very difficult, such, for instance, 
as the climb up the north face of the Kleine Zinne, 
which a few years ago was pronounced by the most 
expert guides of the district to be unclimbable ; and 
can now only be ascended by those who are satisfied 
with the scantiest hand and foot hold on the ledges 
and in the cracks of nearly vertical walls of rock, 
many hundreds of feet in height. But the rocks are 
sound and solid. 

"The climb to the top of the curious Cinque Torri 
rocks is unique, inasmuch as seven- eights of the 
climb is accomplished within the gloomy interior — 
in the heart of the rocky masses — and it is only when 
you near the summit that you come out into broad 
daylight. Then one must climb upon the difficult ledges 
of the upper fifty feet of these apparently inaccessible 
rocks, which are split and fissured so sharply from 

291 



Austria 

each other that a good jump would carry you from 
one summit to another." 

So speaks my friend who has climbed these heights 
of which he speaks, and he has jotted down the types 
of climb of the principal of these expeditions — 



Name. 


Height. 


Remarks on the climb. 


Monte Cristallo 


10,495 


Fit only for experts with steady 
heads. 


Piz Popena 


10,310 


Very difficult. 


Kleine Ziune . 


9,020 


North face extremely difficult ; 
impossible to descend by this 
face. 


Cinque Torri rocks . 


7,750 


No serious difficulty. 


Sorapis . 


10,520 


Toilsome and difficult. 


Nuvolau . 


8,460 


Not difficult. 


Monte delle Marmarole . 


9,620 


Not difficult for experts. 


Croda da Lago 


8,887 


Very difficult. 


Antelao . 


10,710 


Superb point of view ; no difficulty 
to experts. 


Tofana . 


10,635 


Not difficult. 


Becco di Mezzodi . 


8,430 


Not difficult. 


Croda Rossa . 


10,330 


Toilsome and difficult. 



This sketch of mountaineering work at Cortina will 
suffice to show what vast scope there is in Tyrol for 
all kinds of mountain work ; and we must let this 
district speak for all, leaving the Alpinists to fill in 
all the infinite variety, minutiae, and endless chain of 
excitement of the work from a variety of experiences 
throughout Tyrol. We must double back to Franzen- 
feste for the route over the Brenner to Innsbruck ; 
again following up the rushing Eisack, as we look 
ahead after leaving Franzensfeste, we see as we 
approach Sterzing the fields of pure snow lying in 
the peaked, jagged rocks, and the little town is most 
picturesque, lying on the lower hills that are cultivated 

292 







r 




CRODA DA LAGO 



The Tyrol to Meran and Cortina 

with care, and with grass and trees to their very 
summits. On the lower slopes are the brown chalets 
and grey-green streams, and little white villages 
climbing the rich green slopes. Then the scene 
changes to wild savage rocks with hardy fir trees, 
and with ever-varying scenes we climb on to the 
summit of the Brenner pass, 4490 feet above sea 
level. The first of the railway passes over the Alps, 
opened in 1867, a marvel of engineering work at 
that period. 

As we begin to descend, a solemn little dark green 
lake varies the scene, and the line winds along a 
precipice that is so sheer from the carriage windows, 
that once when passing along it, a young American 
travelling companion went to the other side of the 
carriage to give a little extra balance to the train. 

The rail winds and twists and curves above lovely 
valleys, and gradually the streams become wider, and 
we drop slowly down until we wind on through a 
fruitful valley, and Innsbruck is reached. 



293 



CHAPTER XXX 

INNSBRUCK AND THE ARLBERG 

INNSBRUCK is very frequently the gate by 
which travellers enter Austria. In this volume 
it will be the gate, with the magnificent 
avenue of the Arlberg, by which we quit this 
Empire, so munificently blessed by Nature, and so 
fascinating in its history and its people. 

The principality or crownland of the Tyrol with the 
Vorarlberg has a population of about a million in- 
habitants ; the German element largely predominating, 
which it does to a greater extent in the north, while, in 
the south, an Italian element amounts to over 300,000 
souls. It has been said that the principal occupation 
in the Tyrol is hotel keeping, but we have seen how 
keenly other industries are fostered and developed in 
various parts of its 10,000 square miles of area, which 
is over 11,000 square miles if we include Vorarlberg. 

The spacious well-built capital has a population 
of about 60,000 inhabitants, and its buildings and 
streets are dignified, and not unworthy of the massive 
nature's handiwork, the snow- clad mountain ranges 
that literally overshadow the city. I first visited 
Innsbruck on a hot August day many years ago, 
and it was indeed hot. But in winter the mountain 
heights that encircle it, especially on the north, make 
it a pleasant place to live in, and in the Spring it is a 
delightful halting-place. 

294 







INNSBRUCK 



Innsbruck and the Arlberg 

There is plenty of history and of historical buildings 
to interest in Innsbruck, and one can wander up and 
down its Maria Theresa Street, and under the old 
arcade, and look up to the mountains high overhead 
again and again, and then wander on past that gem 
of house architecture, the Goldenes Dachl (the little 
gold roof), and study the frescoes and sculpture on 
it, and stroll on passing some rich examples of 
mediaeval houses, through the Burggraben, to the 
open spacious Rennweg, with the pretty Hof Gardens 
and park. But facing this Rennweg is the entrance 
to the sight of Innsbruck, that is worth travelling 
very far to see. The Franciscan or Hof Church, with 
that marvellous monument, one of the grandest, most 
artistic, and yet strangest that the world has ever seen ; 
the monument to Maximilian, with the exquisitely 
wrought bronze figures around it ; and near by. close 
to the door, is the simple monument to the daring, 
indomitable patriot, Andreas Hofer, the noble inn- 
keeper who entered this church to give thanks to 
God for his second freeing of Innsbruck. The story 
of Hofer the patriot and martyr, and his heroic 
struggle that lasted just ten months and ten days, 
is well told in a local book by Charlotte Coursen, 
which also gives a good resume of the history of the 
Tyrol. 

There is a very beautiful walk along by the rushing 
Inn, the Ferdinand's Allee, that gives pretty peeps 
between the trees of the town, and good views of the 
mountains along the Inn valley. At the end of this 
walk is the chain bridge, and the new lift up the 
Hungerburg ; a strange thing this, but an easy way 
of climbing the height. The Inn, as it rushes on, 

295 



Austria 

recalls our start for the tour down the Danube, just 
below Passau, where it merges itself in the greater 
flood. 

To the economist and the educationalist, one of the 
most interesting things in Innsbruck of modern life 
is the Handel's Akademie, or Commercial School. 
This is a most spacious handsome block of build- 
ings, with every facility for technical classes, and 
there is one course of instruction given here that is 
unique. A most elaborate well thought-out course 
for students studying with a view to the manage- 
ment of hotels. It was, I believe, Herr Karl Landsee, 
a cultured, far-seeing citizen of Innsbruck, who im- 
pressed upon the educational authorities the fact that 
the chief industry of the Tyrol, and a most important 
industry throughout the Empire, was hotel-keeping, 
and whilst courses of education were organised for 
every trade and profession, there was none for either 
hotel managers or waiters, and he pointed out the 
great variety of subjects such men should study to be 
good managers. At last the courses were arranged, 
including buying, cooking, glass, linen, furnishing, 
languages, geography ; habits of other nations, 
sanitation, and the multifarious things a good waiter 
and a good manager should know. This may account 
for Innsbruck's boast — they have some of the best 
hotels in the world. 

After studying this modern institution, it is not 
far to the Karlstrasse, wherein is the great National 
Museum or Ferdinandeum. Here the history of 
Innsbruck and of the Tyrol can be studied from pre- 
historic times down through the ages ; and in the 
picture gallery the life of to-day, as depicted by 

296 




I.\ THE ARLBERG PASS 



Innsbruck and the Arlberg 

Defregger, will bring back many a scene witnessed 
on Aim, and in the villages, as well as recalling the 
fierce struggles of these stalwart mountaineers to 
preserve their liberty. 

All around Innsbruck are excursions innumerable. 
The quaint old town of Hall is one of the easiest day 
excursions, and a pleasant way to reach this now is 
by the tramway, as one gets good views en route, and 
one can stop at will. The grouping of the buildings, 
especially round the Rathaus at Hall, is full of delight- 
ful architectural morsels, and the copper domes of 
the cathedral, with their ofttimes brilliant colour, add 
to this charm. The town has a dignified antiquity, 
and it has preserved a good deal of its mediaeval 
aspect, and to both historian and architect, and more 
especially to the artist, it has very much of interest. 
The noble towers of the Stift and Pfarr churches, 
and the solid Miinster Tower form effective bits, and 
the scene here on a market-day haunts one for a 
long time. Another excursion now made very easy is 
to Igls, by carriage, or the route to Berg Isel can be 
taken, and then passing the massive and beautifully 
decorated Castle Ambras, which is also a museum of 
arms, etc., we reach Igls by tramway. The views 
from this pleasant height, especially if one walks on 
to Rosenhohe, on the edge of the pine forests, whose 
soughing ever speaks of the sea, are always very 
impressive, even as seen on a rainy day ; the cloud 
gloom over the mountains that now hides and now 
reveals their glory and vastness is perhaps as beauti- 
ful as the effect on a clear sunny day, when the snowy 
heights glitter in the sun. In the spring these heights 
are a glory of Alpine flowers, and as we look at the 

297 



Austria 

peaks around we can see how inexhaustible are the 
expeditions that can be made from Innsbruck, afoot, 
in motor, by rail, or by tramway. One list of thirty- 
four excursions within a ten-mile radius of the town, 
including some most interesting spots, lies before us, 
and as in returning from the heights we look down 
upon the capital of Tyrol, with the grey waters of 
the Inn rushing through its pleasant tree-bordered 
gardens, above which rise the historic spires and 
towers, one gleans faintly how these scenes inspired 
the patriotism that urged on their national hero, 
Andreas Hofer, to his heroic actions, and that to-day 
inspires a glowing love for their country in the hearts 
of peasants and burghers — a love expressed in their 
songs and national music. 

We quit this gate of the Tyrol ever with regret, 
but what a glorious avenue have we to pass through 
ere we quit the confines of Austria ! first of all 
running up the Inn valley, then climbing the giant 
walls of the Arlberg, and on through the Vorarlberg 
to the frontier. 

As we rise slowly from the Innsbruck level, which 
is 1880 feet above sea level, we look away to that 
tremendous wall of rock, the Martinswand, that 
governs the Inn valley, and soon see peaks of the 
Dolomite type rising up to 8000 or 9000 feet — such 
peaks as the great sugar loaf of the Tschirgant. 
Castles are perched on apparently inaccessible heights, 
and ever the Inn rushes on, through rocky defiles and 
dark ravines, whilst the good roads tempt the 
motorist, and the little footways up through dark 
pine forests tempt the pedestrian. 

The town of Landeck makes a good halting-spot 

298 




HAM. IX TIROL 



Innsbruck and the Arlberg 

in this district, but we climb on upward, and, as we 
near St Anton, get a striking view of the bluish ice 
cliffs on the glaciers of the Rimer Mountains that 
rise over 10,000 feet into the heavens. 

At St Anton we are in one of those lovely rich 
upland valleys, dominated by its dark red church 
spire that always seem to breathe peace. As it 
is over 5000 feet in altitude, in winter there is 
plenty of snow for winter sports. After quitting St 
Anton we enter the famous Arlberg Tunnel, that is 
about 6J miles in length, and has made possible 
this railway journey through a district so full of 
beauty. The tunnel passed, we begin to descend, 
having reached the height of 4300 feet. 

We look down into deep Klamms and Schluchts, 
gorges and ravines, and then over dark forests to 
snowy peaks against blue sky and white clouds. The 
scene is ever changing; we drop slowly down, on 
through tunnels, over viaducts, that give wondrous 
peeps into lovely valleys or up to serrated peaks 
and snow-clad heights. We rush through cuttings 
and along precipices, until we arrive at Bludenz, 
where it may be said is the end of this great romance of 
engineering skill. The groups of mountains we have 
passed through run up to 12,580 feet, and especially 
in the Stanzer Valley between St Anton and Landeck 
are they full of rugged grand beauty, and the ex- 
peditions that may be made in this district are endless. 
From Bludenz we run on along the widening valley 
of the 111 to Feldkirch, and either quit Austria at the 
Frontier Station of Buchs, or we may follow along 
the valley of the Rhine that here skirts the Austrian 
territory to Bregenz, the capital of the Vorarlberg, 

299 



Austria 

where we are on the shores of the Bodensee, or Lake 
Constance. 

Bregenz has suffered the usual fate of frontier 
towns, and has endured warfare under various nations. 
In the days of the Romans it was known as Brigantum, 
a fortified station, and for centuries it was one of 
the chief fortified southern German towns. It was 
stormed by the Swedes in 1646, taken by the French 
in 1796, so that Bregenz has a notable history. To- 
day it is a small country town little frequented by 
tourists, but a pleasant place for a halt, with plenty 
of interesting work for the pedestrian or motorist, 
and for the historian and archaeologist in the near 
neighbourhood. In winter I have seen good skating 
on the lake, where in summer, boating, bathing and 
fishing can be enjoyed, and here on this extreme 
western point of Austria we conclude our pilgrimage 
through its homelands. 

We have traversed the Empire from the Giant 
Mountains to the Adriatic and from the Russian 
frontier to this western frontier by the Rhine, and if 
the vowels, A, E, I, O, U, adopted by the Emperor 
Frederick III. in the fifteen century, cannot be used 
with his words " Alles Erdreich 1st Oesterreich 
Unterthan," or in Latin, " Austria Est Imperare 
Orbi Universo," a phrase that no Emperor or monarch 
has yet ever truthfully been able to adopt ; yet if we 
look at the strangely rich territories and the varied 
climates, and valuable natural productions of her 
homelands, if we take the word Erdreich in its literal 
value of "earth, soil," and to mean Nature's king- 
doms, not political kingdoms, the words may be used 
to-day, for there are few empires possessing so vast 

300 



Innsbruck and the Arlberg 

a diversity of Nature's riches. And we have been able 
to give glimpses of the diversity of the people who 
inhabit this territory — varied, antagonistic, emulous, 
and yet all working forward in one conglomerate 
mass, uplifting their homelands and their people, 
and in so doing advancing the great Empire of Austria, 
and maintaining her position as the great balancing 
influence in Central Europe. 



301 




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Index 



To lessen the number of references, the pages are not cited in which only 
a casual note is made of a place or person, or where the subject is continued 
on successive pages. 

Bajuvaren, the, 119 

Beddoes, Dr, 134 

Beethoven, 47, 98 

Belar, Professor, 135 

Benedictine Abbey of Gottweig, 264 

Benkovac, 155 

Beskiden Mountains, 63 

Bezdez, or Bosig, 12, 13 

Bismarck, Fiirst, 200 

Black Lake, 35 

Blondel, 261 

Bludenz, 299 

Bocche di Cattaro, 171 

Bockstein, 198 

Bodenbach, 8 

Bodensee, or Lake Constance, 300 

Bohemia, 9, 24 

Bohemia, Northern and Eastern, 8 

Bohemia, Southern and Western, 

30 
Bohemian glass, 23 
Bohemian Paradise, the, 14 
Boni, Comendatore, 163 
Books on the Danube, 229 
Bora, terrific, 144 
Bozen, 285, 286 
Brazza, 164 
Brenner Pass, 293 
Brigantum, 300 
Brioni, 150 
Bristol Castle, 17 
British writers and journalists in 

Carniola, 132 
Brixen, 289 

Brown, Dr Edward, 133 
Bruck, 115 
Bruneck, 289 
Briinn, centre of cloth and leather 

trades, 49, 50, 57 
Buchs, 299 
Budweis, 31, 32 
Bukowina, 82, 83 



A, E, I, O, U, 300 

Abbazia, paradise of roses, 177 

Adelsberg, 138 

Adelsberg vast caverns, 139 

Adersbach, 9 

Adige River, 281 

Adriatic, 114, 143 

Afforestation of the Karat, 146 

Aggstein, 259 

Agricultural and forestry schools, 99 

Alps, the, 241 

Alt-Ausseer See, 223 

Altvater, 43 

Altvater, ascent of, 44 

Andreas Hofer, 295, 298 

Anne of Bohemia, 17 

Anne, Queen, to Richard the Second, 

22 
Aquileia, 118, 119, 180 
Arco, 279 

Arlberg, the, 8, 294, 299 
Army of the Dual Empire, 104 
Arsenal of Graz, 120 
Attersee, 222 
Attila, 274 

Auersperg, Prince, 242 
Aussee, 224 
Aussig on the Elbe, 39 
Austerlitz, 57 

Austria, into, via the Elbe, 8 
Austria, Lower, 108 
Austrian Empire, political necessity . 

105 
Austrian Lloyd's palatial offices, 143 
Austrian Lloyd, 149 
Avars, the, 119 



B 



Baden, 110 

Bad Gastein, 193, 199 



303 



Austria 



Bukowina history, 90 
Bukowiner Hohe, 74 
Bulgarians, settlements of, 87 
Bulic, Monseignor, 154, 162, 164 
Burghermeister Lueger, 272 
Burgstein or Sloup, 11, 12 
Busi, Blue Grotto of, 165 



C 



Calais, 8 

Capo d'Istria, 147 

"Cardinals' Page," 17, 34 

Carinthia (Karnten), 180 

Carlsbad, 8, 38 

Carniola history, 130 

Carniola, or Krain, 125 

Carnuntum, 274 

Carnuntum Museum , 274 

Carpathians, 63, 72, 89, 98, 276 

Carpenter's house, 128 

Castle Ambras, 297 

Castle Vitturi, 160 

Castelnuovo, 176 

Cathedral of St Vitus, 23 

Cattaro, 157, 174 

Cattaro history, 176 

Cech students, 27 

Celtic tribes, 119 

Chabowka, 70 

Chains to shut off the Jews, 66 

Chambers of Commerce, not as in 

England, 53 
Chamber of Commerce of Lwow, 

79 
Charles Bridge, 27 
Charles IV., 19 
Chods, the, 35 

Christianity, early adopted, 119 
Cinque Torri, 291 
Clementinum, 23 
Clifton, 134 
Cobenzl, 98 

Commerce, Chamber of, 86 
Corporate life of small towns, 58 
Corpus Christi procession, 127, 129 
Cortina d'Ampezzo, 290 
Council of Trent, 283 
Court of Charles V, 19 
Cracow, 63, 67 
Croatian and Serbian languages, 

175 
Cultivation, intense, 21 
Curzola, 167 
Czernowitz, epitome of Austria, 83 



D 



Dalmatian coast, 157 

Danielsberg, 196 

Dante's Inferno 280 

Danube, moods and passions, 273 

Danube navigation, 234 

Danube saloon steamers, 229 

Danube Steamship Company, 108 

Danube, the, 97, 227 

Danube Valley, 217 

Davy, Sir Humphry, 132, 133, 134, 

136, 138 
Defregger, 287 
Delattre, Abbe, 164, 253 
Deutsch-Altenburg, 274 
Diocletian, 119, 160, 274 
Dobratsch Mountain, 183, 188 
Dolomites, the, 286 
Domazlice (Taus), 19, 35 
Donnerkogel, the, 224 
Dorna Watra, 89 
Drage, Geoffrev, Austria Hungary, 

102, 103, 104 
Drave, 120, 183, 195 
Drena, castle of, 279 
Dresden, 8 
Drought of 1911,273 
Diirrenstein, 261, 264 
Dvorak, 19, 27 
Dzieduszycki Museum, 79 



E 



Eastern Bohemia, 16 
Ebensee, 222 
Economic situation, 103 
Edmunds Klamm, 9, 10 
Education, Austrian, 214 
Education, Austrian, excellent 

system, 52 
Educational establishments of small 

Austrian towns, 58 
Education, Report on Technical and 

Commercial (CD. 419), 104 
Edward VII., King, 38 
Eger, 8, 39 
Eisack, the, 289 
Eisenstein, 35 
Elbe, 8, 10, 17 
Elizabeth, Queen, 22 
Emperor Henry III., a stately 

pageant, 248 
Engandine, 277 
Engineering feats of overcoming 

difficulties, 197 



304 



Ind 



ex 



English fleet under Hoste, 177 

Enns, 109, 120 

Epidaurus, 167 

Ercegnovi, or Castelnuovo, 172 

" Eros and Psyche," remarkable 

drama, entitled, 80 
Ethnographical Museum, 27 
Ethnology, 48 
Etruscans, the, 118 
Etruscan vases, 182 



F 



Factories, 101 

Farmer's house, 128 

Fauna and Flora of Carniola, 132 

Feistritz, 136 

Fete, picturesque, on the Vistula, 66 

Fire alarm, ingenious method, 92 

Fir tree, life of, 233 

Fischamend, 273 

Fischer, Herr, 158 

Flower Corso, Vienna, 97 

Flushing, 8 

Folk's Theatre, 288 

Folk museums, 122 

Folklore and legend, 247 

Forestry, 142 

"Forgotten Great Englishman, A," 

17 
Frain, castle of, 60 
Francis Joseph I., 93, 111, 274 
Franzensbad, 39 
Franzensberg, 51 
Franzensfeste, 288, 289 
Frauenberg, 32 
Freedom in Austria, 103 
Friedland, 12 
Furstenberg Gardens, 24 



G 



Galicia, 63, 77 

Garda, lake of, 277 

Gasthaus zum Richard Lowenherz, 

262 
Gelsse, the — a very special mosquito, 

254 
General Radetzky, 130 
German population of Bavaria, 

linking up, 193 
German students, 27 
Ghega, Karl, 111 

V 305 



Giant Mountains, 11 

Giant Mountain excursions, 14 

Giewont, the, 71 

Gilbert, J., 133 

" Gleaming Dawn, The," 17 

Gloggnitz, 112 

Gmunden, 221 

Gorizia (Gorz), 180, 181 

Gosau, 224 

Government credit, 104 

Gozze, Count, 171 

Gratz or Graz, 114, 115, 116 

Gratz, castle of, 47 

Gravosa, 167 

Greifenstein romance, 272 

Grein, town of, 243 

Greiner Schwall, 244 

Gross and Klein Skal, 14 

Gross Skal, 15 

Grossen Winterberg, 9 

Grottensee, 213 

Guild life of mediaeval days, 268 

Gutenstein, castle of, 37 



II 



Haida, 12 

Hamburg, 275 

Hall, 297 

Halstatter See, 223 

Handel's Akademie, or Commercia 

School, 296 
Hapsburgs, the, 106 
Health resorts, Bohemia, 37 
Heathen customs, 46 
Herrenskretchen, 8, 10 
High Tatra Mountains, 69 
Historical studies, opportunity for, 

190 
Hofer, Dr Brother Berthold, 253 
Hohenelbe, 14 
Hohenfurth, 34 
Hohenlohe memoirs, 17 
Hohenlohe, Prince, 17, 143 
Hook of Holland, 8 
Hotel keeping in the Tyrol, 294 
" Houses," i.e. clubs of the different 

nationalities, 84 
Housewifery school, 72 
Hradcany, Royal Palace of the, 23 
Hradschin, 22 
Hunger tower, 13 
Hunger Wall, 27_ 
Hungarian frontier, 275 
Hus, canonised as a Saint, 22 



Austria 



Husinec, 35 
Huttelberg, 275 



Ice-exuding holes, 59 

Ilz, the, 227 

Industrial life, 104 

Inferno, Dante's, 282 

Inn, the, 227, 296 

Innsbruck, 8 

Innsbruck, 277, 294 

International Challenge Shield, 20 

International Press Congress in Ischl, 

220 
Ischl, 115, 218 
Iser Mountains, 11 
Italian frontier to Riva, 278 



Jacquinta, Norman Princess, 17G 

Jagerndorf, 44, 45 

Jerrold, Walter, 228, 244 

Jewish burying ground, 23 

Jewish Town Hall, 23 

Jews in Galicia, 80 

Jicfn, 13, 14, 16 

Joanneum Museum in Graz, 118, 121 

Jochstein, 230 

John Hus, birthplace of, 34 

Johnsdorf, 10 

John Sobieski, overwhelmed 

Turkish force, 67 
John Westacott, 233, 245 
Joseph II., Emperor, 52 
Julian Alps, 125 
Julian Alps, fauna of, 138 
Jung Bunzlau, or Mada Boleslav, 15 



K 



Kahlenberg, 16, 98 

Kalte Rinne, 112 

Kamnitz, 10 

Kank, 16 

Karawanken Alps, 115, 188, 193 

Karawanken tunnel, 182 

Karlin, 22 

Karlov church, 28 

Karlsbrunn, 43 

Karlstein, 30 

Karluv Most, 23 

Karst Mountains, 142 

King Etzel, 275 



Kistanje, 155 

Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia, 

188, 189 
Klamm, 112 
Klausen, 288 
Kleine Zinne, 291 
Klosterneuburg, 272 
Knight of the Triglav Kingdom, 135 
Knin, 155 
Kolbnitz, 196 
Kohl, Herr J. G., 26, 237 
Koschat, Thomas, folk music, 190 
Koscieliska Valley, 73 
Kosciuszko's tomb, 65 
Kosciuszko, 78 
Kosciuszko Hill, 67 
Krapfenwald, 98 
Krempelstein, 228 
Krems, 264 

Kremser Schmidt, 266, 268 
Krems history, 269 
Kriemhild, 251, 258, 275 
Krka River, 155 
Krumau, or Krumlov, 33, 34 
Kubelik, 27 
Kustenland, the, 141 
Kutna Hora, or Kuttenberg, 16, 17 



" L'Autriche a l'aube de XX 

Siecle," by Max Marse, 102 
Lacroma, isle of, 170 
Laibach, 130, 138 
Landeck, 298 
Landsee, Herr Karl, 296 
Lauriacum, 242 
Layard, Mr, 163 
Leitmeritz, or Litomerice, 11 
Legend, land of, Bohemia, 41 
Lemberg to the Bukowina, 77 
Lessina, 164, 167 
Libussa, Princess, 22, 28 
Life on the higher aim, 221 
Lindtner, Mr, 129 
Linz, 32, 109, 235, 236 
Lissa, 165, 166 
Liszt, 47 

Living cheap in Austria, 101 
Lizzana, castle of, 281 
Ljubljana (Laibach), 125 
Lobau, 273 
Ludi Horecza, 87 
Lussino, 152 
Lwow, or Lemberg, 77 



306 



Index 



M 



Mala Strana, or Little Town, 24 

Mallnitz, 197 

Mandl ohne Kopf, 269 

Mangart group, 188 

Marbach, 249 

Marburg on the Drave, 123 

Marconi, Signor, 134 

Marcus Aurelius, 274 

Maria Rast, 118 

Maria Taferl Church, 249 

Maria Worth, isle of, 190 

Marienbad, 8, 37, 38 

Market women, rich beauty of colour, 

64 
Marsbach, 230 
Matejko, 67 

Mathilde of Schreckenstein, 40 
Mauthausen, 242 
Mautern, 264 
Maximilian, King, 171 
Mayer, Dr F., Steiermark by, 116 
Macocha, legend of, 55, 57 
Meleda, 167 
Meran, 287 
Metkovic, great Serbian stronghold, 

164 
Mies, 37 
Millstatt. 195 
Mirabelle Castle, 210 
Miramar, 146 
Mittagskogel, 188 
Molk (Melk), 241, 251, 252 256 
Mollthal, 196 
Mondsee, 213 

Morena, goddess of Death, 46-119 
Morfill, Professor, 67 
Morskie Oko, or Meeres-auge, 73 
Mountain work around Cortina, 290 
Mozart, 207 
Muhldorf, 196 
Mur River, 116, 117, 120 
Miirz River, 115 
Museum of Industrial Art, 23 
Music, excellent, in Trent, 283 



N 



Napoleonshohe, a pleasant surprise, 

187 
Naprstek's Museum, 25 
Narenta, 164 
National Bank, 103 
Navy, 104 
Niebelungen Lied, 233, 240 271 



Neuhaus, 231, 232 
Newspapers, 100 
Noric branch of the Celts, 118 
Nowy Targ, 70 



Oberbozen, 286 

Oberfalkenstein, 196 

Obervellach, 197 

Oester- Reich, 94 

" Oesterreichisches Statistisches 

Handbuch," 41, 99 
Olmiitz, 48 
Oman, Professor, 83 
Ombla, the, 167 
Opcina, 142 
Oppa falls, 44 

Oppa, Gold, White, Middle, 44 
Oppa, the, 43 
Ossolinski Museum, 79 
Ostend, 8 
Ottensheim, 235 



Pacher, Michael, altar-piece by, 215 
Padernione, village of, 280 
Palacky, 104 
Palacky's History, 17 
Palaeolithic find, 268 
Palm Sunday in Moravia, 46 
Pannonia, province of, 274 
Paradise for sportsman, fisherman, 

or mountaineer, botanist, or 

geologist, 68 
Parisic, Signor, 161 
Parliament House, 24 
Paracelsus, Theophrastus, 183 
Pay for peasants, 128 
Payne, Peter, the " Forgotten great 

Englishman," 37 
Peasant Art of Austria, 206 
Peasant folk, quaint customs, 157 
Peasants' peculiar dross, 75 
Perasto, famous for its seamen, 173 
Perko, Mr, 141 
Persenbeug, castle of, 248 
Petermann, Reinhard, 158 
Petronell, 274 
Philanthropic institutions in Vienna, 

96 
" Pictures from Bohemia," 13 
Picturesque dress, women in, 36 
Pilsen, 36 



307 



Austria 



Plants, rarer, 137 

Pochlarn, Great, 250 

Pochlarn, Little, 250 

Podiebrad, 17 

Pola, 151 

Poles free under Austria, 63 

Ponale, 278 

Population and race, 99 

Population of Upper Austria, 229 

Poronin, 70, 74 

Portshach, 191 

Postlingberg, ascent of, in the 

seventies, 239 
Powder Tower, 21 
Prachatic, 34 
Prague, 16, 19, 21, 28 
Prater Quay, 108 
Prater, the, 97 
Prebischthor, 9 
Premysl, 22 

Prokov, Rock town of, 16 
Prussian campaign of 1866, 16 
Pruth, the, 85, 87 
Punta Planka, 159 
Pusterthal, the, 288, 289 



Quarnero, 152, 177 

Quarnero and Quarnerolo, 149 



11 



Race difficulties and aspirations, 105 

Ragusa, 164, 168 

Raible Dolomites, 189 

Railways of Europe, grandmother 

of, 32 
Railways, productive, development 

by the State, 103 
Ransonnet, Baron, 165 
Reichenberg, 11 
Reichsrath, the, 102 
Religious establishments in Czernow- 

witz, 85 
Report for the Board of Education 

on Technical and Commercial 

Education in Central Europe 

(CD. 419), 79 
Rex Triglavenses I., 135 
Richard Coeur de Lion, 180, 237, 261 
Richard Coeur de Lion, guest of the 

Ragusan Senate, 170 
Richard the Second of England, 17 
Riva, 277 



Riva to Mori, 281 
Rivalry of the varied races, 24 
Rizano, 175 
Rock towns, 9 
Roll, the, 12 
Romerbad, 123 
Rosenbergs, 16, 33, 34 
Rosengarten, 286 
Rossatz, 262 
Rotstein, 15 

Rotwein Klamm, 135, 190 
Rovensko, 15 
Rovereto, 282 
Rovigno, 150 
Roznik, village of, 127 
Rudolphinum, 23 
Rupert, Prince, 22 
Ruthenians, absolute freedom 
Galicia, 82 



S 



Sabbioncello, 167 

Sadagora, 83, 87 

Sadowa, 16 

St Anton, 299 

St Barbara, Church of, 16 

St Florian, 241 

St Gilgen, 213 

St Giorgio and Madonna della 

Scapella, 173 
St Johann, 260 
St Johann Pongau, 204 
St John's, 28 
St Martin, 28 
St Martin's, mine of, 16 
St Peter and Paul, 28 
St Stephen, 106 
St Veit, 128 
St Wolfgang, 213, 214 
Salinas, Professor, 163 
Salona, the Pompeii of Dalmatia, 162 
Salzburg, 206 
Salzburg, Duchy of, 199 
Salzkammergut, the, 115, 206, 212 
Salzkammergut Lakes, 213 
Samuel, Bulgarian Czar, 176 
Sann River, 123 
Sarca River, 279 

Sarcophagi, exceptionally fine, 163 
Sarmingstein, 247 
Save, 120, 125 
Savings Bank. 86, 100 
Saxon Switzerland, 8 
Schachinger, Dr, 253, 255 
Schafberg, the, 216 



308 



Index 






Schandau, 8 

Scheffel, v. Viktor, 260 

Schliemann, Dr, 163 

Schlossberg, 116, 122 

Schneekoppe, 14 

Schonbrunn, 93, 97 

Schonbiihl, or Schonbichel, 259 

Schools, excellent, 45 

Schreckenstein, castle of, 39 

Schreckenwald, the robber knight, 

259 
Schwarzach, St Veit, 203 
Schwarzenberg, Prince, 33 
Schwarzenberg territory, Natural 

History in the, 32 
Sebenico, 157, 158 
Sedlec, 17 

Semmering Pass, 110 
Semmering, the, 108, 114 
Sevcik, 27, 35 
Shaduf wells, 81 
Siemiradzki, 67 
Sigmundskron, 288 
Silesia to Moravia, 43 
Silvio Pellico, 52, 144 
Skoda establishment, 36 
Slav part songs, 135 
Slavonian folk, picturesque dress, 

183 
Slum, town without a, 28 
Smetana, 19, 27 
Smichov, 22 

Sobieski, John, 65, 77, 90, 218 
Sokol, 84 

Sokol Athletic Society, 36 
Southampton, 17 
Southern Railway, 109, 113 
Spalato, 160 
Spielberg, the, 51 
Spittal, 111, 194 
Spitz, 260 
Sports in the forests and mountains, 

41 
Sport, plenty of, in Carinthia, 191 
Stalactite caverns, 74 
Statistical Central Commission, 

Royal and Imperial, 98 
" Statistisches Jahrbuch der Auto- 

nomen Landesverwaltung," 99 
Stein, 264 
Stertzing, 292 
Stillenstein Klamin, 244 
Stradioti, island of, 172 
Strahov monastery, the, 27 
Styria, the ancient Steiermark of 

Austria, 113 
Styrian Alps, 98 



Sudden contrasts of life in Austria, 

218 
Sudeten, the, 43 
Sumava, 35 



T 



Tabor, founded by Zizka, 31 

Tannenberg, 11 

Tarvis, 188 

Tatra Mountains, 74, 75 

Tauern Mountains, 114, 132 

Tauern Railway, 191, 193, 195 

Tauern tunnel, 197 

Taufers, 290 

Taus, 19 

Technical Schools, 99 

Tegetthoff, Admiral, 165 

Teplitz, 39 

Tetschen, 11. 

Teufelsmauer, 260 

Teyn Church, 21 

Thaya Valley, 57 

Theben, fortress of, 275 

Tillage, excellent, 100 

Timber work on the Danube, 232 

Titian, 19 

Tobin, Dr, 133 

Toblach, 277, 290 

Toblino Lake, 279 

Toplitz and Kammer Lakes, 225 

Totegebirge, the, 225 

Trau, 159 

Traunsee, 221 

Traunstem, 221 

Trautenau, 11, 16 

Trent, Trento or Trient, 281 

Triest, 142 

" Triffoni," coins, 176 

Triglav, 130 

Triglav Lakes, 135 

Troppau, 45, 47 

Trosky, 15 

Trstenik, 167 

Tschirgant, the, 298 

Tulln, 271 

Turnov (Turnau), 11, 13, 15 

Tyrol, 277, 281, 285 



U 






Und, 264 
Undine, 233 
Ungarisch-Hradisch, 57 
Universal Suffrage, 103 



309 



Austria 



Unterfalkenstein, 196 
Untersberg, the, 209 



Vandals, the, 274 

Veit Stoss, 64 

Veldes, 136 

Velebit Mountains, 152, 156 

Vezzano, 280 

Vienna, 91 

Vienna Flower Corso, 97 

Villach, 115 

Vindobona (Vienna), 274 

Vinohrady, 22, 28 

Vistula, 63 

Vltava, 23, 27, 33 

Vorarlberg, 294 

Voslau, 110 

Vysehrad, 23, 28 



W 

Wachau, the, 254, 259, 271 
Wages, for men, for women, 52 
Wages in factories, 128 
Wagner, 19 
Wagram, 57, 273 
Waldstein, 14, 15, 16 
WaUensteins, 12, 15, 45, 61, 194 
Wallensteins, palace of, 24 
Wallsee, 243 
Walpurgis night, 31 
Walter Crane, 57 
Warmbad bathing resort, 184 



Wartberg, 115 

Weckelsdorf, 9 

Weinzettelwand, 112 

Weiteneck, 251 

Wenzel's chapel, double church, 

upper Roman Catholic, lower 

Protestant, 61 
" Whisky's had nae chance," 37 
White Dunajec, 71 
White Mountain, 22 
Whitmonday at Warmbad and 

Villach, 186 
Wiclif period, 17 
Wiener Wald, 271 
Wochein La\e, 134 
Wonder Rabbi Friedmann, 88 
Wood-carving and the lace-making 

schools of Zakopane, 75 
Woodwork school, 183, 222 
Worther See, 190 
Wyclifite wars, 40 
Wyscherad, 22 



Ybbs, 24S 



Zakopane, 69, 70, 75 
Zara, 153 
Zeller See, 210 
Zizkov, 22 
Znaim, 58, 61, 273 
Zwitta River, 55 



1 04 89 

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